Per-Erik Lennart Öhrn (born 18 October 1946) is a Swedish opera and theatre director,

opera singer Opera is a form of Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a lib ...

, actor, professor, translator and

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

. Öhrn grew up in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

and trained as an opera singer (

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

) at the School of Music and Drama at the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...

. He has worked as an actor at Östgötateatern in

Linköping Linköping ( , ) is a city in southern Sweden, with around 167,000 inhabitants as of 2024. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Chu ...

, at Uppsala Stadsteater and as a singer and director of

Stora Teatern Stora Teatern (popularly known as Storan) is a musical theater in the Lorensberg district of Gothenburg, Sweden. Inaugurated in 1859, it is situated in Kungsparken park south of Kungsportsplatsen. It was originally founded to replace the ''Sege ...

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

and at

Norrlandsoperan The NorrlandsOperan (), is a Swedish opera company in Umeå, located in Norrland, Sweden. The ownership of NorrlandsOperan is divided between the Umeå Municipality (40%) and the Västerbotten County Council (60%). NorrlandsOperan was establishe ...

Umeå Umeå ( , , , locally ; ; ; ; ) is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. Situated on the Ume River, Umeå is the largest Urban areas in Sweden, locality in Norrland and the t ...

. He has directed over fifty productions at Vadstena Academy, Norrlandsoperan,

National Swedish Touring Theatre The National Swedish Touring Theatre () is the largest touring theatre company in Sweden. It serves as Sweden's national stage on tour. The company is owned and funded by 240 local economic associations spread throughout the country. Their mai ...

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television aktiebolag, Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksd ...

Drottningholm Palace Theatre The Drottningholm Palace Theatre () is an opera house located at Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the few 18th century theatres in Europe that is still used as a theatre with its original stage machinery. Currently, the r ...

, Stora Teatern,

Malmö Opera and Music Theatre Malmö is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region. Located on the Öresund strait on the southwestern coast of Sweden, it is the largest city in Scania, with a munici ...

and other theatres. Öhrn has also translated operas of among other

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano p ...

Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( ; ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

Domenico Cimarosa Domenico Cimarosa (; 17 December 1749 – 11 January 1801) was an Music of Italy, Italian composer of the Neapolitan School and of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He wrote more than eighty operas, the best known of which is ''Il ...

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (; ; March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for hi ...

Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach (; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. He was a p ...

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8September 18411May 1904) was a Czech composer. He frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predec ...

and

Alfred Schnittke Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Russian composer. Among the most performed and recorded composers of late 20th-century classical music, he is described by musicologist Ivan Moody (composer), Ivan Moody as a ...

. Through the years Öhrn has also worked to highlight older, less known or rarely played operas; such as

Wilhelm Stenhammar Carl Wilhelm Eugen Stenhammar (February 7, 1871 – November 20, 1927) was a Swedish composer, conductor and pianist. Biography Stenhammar was born in Stockholm to and . His brother was the architect Ernst Stenhammar. He received his first m ...

's ''Tirfing'' at Malmö Opera and Music Theatre in 2011. He has been artistic director of the Vadstena Academy in 1986–91, Norrlandsoperan in 1977–78 and 1988–96 and the Drottningholm Palace Theatre in 1997–2006. He has been professor in the music-dramatic arts at the School of Music and Drama at the University of Gothenburg since 2002 and also teaches at

University College of Opera The University College of Opera () was until 2014 a Swedish institution in Stockholm offering higher education in the field of opera music and related arts. Since 1 January 2014, it has been fully integrated as part of the Stockholm Universit ...

, Stockholm. Öhrn helped found the

Fäviken Fäviken was a restaurant located in Åre Municipality, Jämtland, Sweden. It was run by chef Magnus Nilsson between 2008 and 2019. The food served at the restaurant was localised to the estates around the restaurant, with only a handful of excep ...

Opera Festival in the summer of 2007 with the staging of Cimarosa's ''The Poor Guy Got Married''. During his time as head of the Drottningholm Palace Theatre, he ordered for the first time since the 1700s a newly written opera, by

Jonas Forssell Jonas may refer to: Geography * Jonas, Netherlands, Netherlands * Jonas, Pennsylvania, United States * Jonas Ridge, North Carolina, United States Arts, entertainment, and media * Jonas Brothers, American pop rock band. ** ''Jonas'' (TV series ...

and

Reine Jönsson Reine is the administrative centre of Moskenes Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The fishing village is located on the island of Moskenesøya in the Lofoten archipelago, above the Arctic Circle, about southwest of the city of Tromsø. ...

. In 2013 and 2014 Öhrn directed Mozart's ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...

'' and ''

Così fan tutte (''Women are like that, or The School for Lovers''), Köchel catalogue, K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written ...

'' at

Stålboga Summer Opera Stålboga Summer Opera (Swedish: Stålboga sommaropera) is an annual event staged at the privately owned Stålboga Manor House on a small peninsula in the lake Eklången 35 kilometers from Eskilstuna and 100 kilometers from Stockholm, Sweden. Mill ...

Bibliography

* Bakom kulisserna, Föreningen för tidig musik, Per-Erik Öhrn / Daniel Blockert, Sara Norling

Recordings

*Operett på Storan : Csardasfurstinnan, Boccaccio, Fågelhandlaren (English translation: Light opera at the Grand Theatre: Die Csárdásfürstin, Boccaccio, Der Vogelhändler), 2001, Philips : 6316 085

Filmography

* Zoroastre (2006 TV Movie) (artistic director)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ohrn, Per-Erik University of Gothenburg alumni Swedish opera directors Swedish theatre directors Living people 1946 births Male actors from Malmö