Döbeln (2009)
(Chamber Opera)

The main character in my opera Döbeln, commissioned by Kokkola Opera Festival, is a controversial Swedish general named Georg Carl von Döbeln, who at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century successfully led the Swedish war troops. During the battles of Porrassalmi in 1789, Döbeln was shot in the head and seriously injured. Despite the differences between General Döbeln and King Gustav IV Adolf, in 1809 Gustav IV Adolf commanded him to lead Åland’s defense against the Russian attack and the retreat of the Swedish troops across a frozen Åland Sea.

In the opera’s frame story, the plot is set in motion by General Döbeln being shot and the gunshot wound to the head being operated on. This same operation also ends the opera. In an opium intoxication during the operation, Döbeln dreams and hallucinates both about past and future events. In the area between dream and reality, Döbeln begins to question himself and weigh his choices and the consequences of them. As Döbeln sinks deeper and deeper into the world of his own mind, both he, the people he meets, the characters his imagination creates and the events around him become increasingly strange and grotesque.

Sebastian Fagerlund