Facts

The Master Builder

In July 1891 Ibsen returned to Norway and Christiania after 27 years abroad. The Master Builder was written the following year, but the creative process began in a way in Gossensass in the summer of 1889 - more precisely with his experiences with 18-year-old Emilie Bardach from Vienna. In February 1891 Ibsen visited his friend the literature scholar Julius Elias, in Berlin. Elias later published the following report of what Ibsen had said during this visit:

`Do you know, my next play [The Master Builder] is already hovering before me - in general outline, of course. One thing I can see clearly, though -  an experience I once had myself - a female character. Very interesting - very interesting.` Then he related how he had met in the Tyrol (where she was staying with her mother) a Viennese girl of very remarkable character, who had at once made him her confidant. The gist of it was that she was not interested in the idea of marrying some decently brought-up young man; most likely she would never marry. What tempted, fascinated and delighted her was to lure other women`s husbands away from them. She was a demonic little wrecker; she often seemed to him like a little bird of prey, who would gladly have included him among her victims. He had studied her very, very closely. But she had had no great success with him. `She did not get hold of me, but I got hold of her - for my play. Then I fancy she consoled herself with someone else.`
(Michael Meyer, Henrik Ibsen - A biography, Garden City and New York 1971, p. 626)

Thus Emilie Bardach inspired the character Hilde Wangel. It is assumed that Emily Bardach is presented as far more "devilish" and calculating in the play than she ever was towards Ibsen. Possibly the description fits the character Hilde Wangel better than Emilie Bardach.

After his visit to Berlin in February 1891 Ibsen must - as was his wont - have thought about the subject for about a year. On March 16th 1892 he wrote a poem, which when first published in Samlede Værker (Collected Works) (1899), is described as "The first preliminary work for «The Master Builder»". The poem touches on the theme of The Master Builder. Several times earlier, while planning new plays, Ibsen had written poems with a similar function: to summarize the theme in a concentrated form.

No other preliminary work on The Master Builder has been preserved. Ibsen is thought to have destroyed this, together with the first draft and possibly a second draft in the spring or summer of 1892. Another lost source of information about the play`s creative process is the correspondence between Ibsen and the pianist Hildur Andersen, who was an intimate friend from August 1891 and for many years. His relationship with her resembles those with Emilie Bardach and Helene Raff in many ways.
In February 1892 Hildur Andersen left for Vienna to study there for six months. During this time she and Ibsen wrote a number of letters to each other, in which Ibsen`s work on The Master Builder was mentioned. These letters have not been preserved.

On August 9th 1892 Ibsen began work on what was to be the final version of The Master Builder. This manuscript is extant, with the following defines:

The fair copy was completed during September and October 1892.

First edition
The Gyldendal edition
The Master Builder was published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn) in Christiania on December 12th and in Copenhagen on December 14th 1892 in an edition of 10 000 copies.

The play had a somewhat mixed reception, but on the whole more positive than in the case of the preceding plays.

The Heinemann edition
As in the case of Hedda Gabler in 1890, the English publisher William Heinemann issued The Master Builder in a "mini-edition" (12 copies) in London, in order to secure the copyright. This took place on December 6th 1892.

First performance
The first public performance of The Master Builder was a reading at the Theatre Royal in the Haymarket in London - in Norwegian. The reading took place on December 7th 1892 - five days before the play was even published in Christiania and Copenhagen - and was part of William Heinemann`s strategy to secure the copyright for himself (see above).

The first professional staging of the play was on January 19th 1893 at the Lessing-Theater in Berlin. The director Emanuel Reicher played the title role.

By Jens-Morten Hanssen / ibsen.net