Drottningholm Court Baroque Ensemble

The Drottningholm Court Baroque Ensemble was founded in 1971 by Lars Brolin using players from within the Stockholm Royal Opera Orchestra. The band takes its name from the Drottningholm Slottstheater, built on the island of Mälaren located directly opposite the city of Stockholm by King Gustaf III in 1766. The theater, built primarily for opera performances, was later incorporated into the Royal Palace complex, also built by Gustaf III and not completed until 1782. In 1792 Gustaf III was assassinated in the Drottningholm Slottstheater during a masquerade ball, an event that was later incorporated into an opera, Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera. Gustaf's successor threatened to tear the Slottstheater down, but ultimately the building was simply locked up, encapsulating its original theatrical machinery, curtains, and interiors in an unchanged form for the next century and a half. Theatrical stagings were revived at the Slottstheater staring in the early '20s, and the theater's unique eighteenth century ambiance has been utilized as a setting for Ingmar Bergman's 1976 film of Mozart's The Magic Flute.

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VIDEO: Live from concert in Stockholm, April 2010. Johann Ludvig Bach - Ouverture and Adagio from E-major violin concerto by JS Bach, soloist Nils-Erik Sparf ...