A new black-and-white opera based on the Icelandic sagas is now available to watch on the Amazon Prime streaming platform, while the accompanying album has been released on Apple Music.
Director Jeffrey Leiser has also confirmed the opera's cinematic premiere will take place at the Scandinavia House in New York.
An epic of legends
Freydís and Gudrid is an epic musical that explores the history and legends of the Vinland Sagas through a tale of two women, Freydís Eiríksdóttir and Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir.
Freydís (Kirsten Chambers) is the daughter of Erik the Red and sister to Leif Erikson, while Gudrid (Micaëla Oeste) is the wife of Freydís's brother, Thorstein.
As he explained in a recent interview with The Viking Herald, Leiser was inspired to create the opera after a visit to Iceland from his home in the U.S.
Upon his return, he also read The Sagas of Icelanders (available for purchase on Amazon here), which depict the journey made by a small group of Vikings from Greenland to the territory of Vinland, now understood to be part of the eastern American continent, including Newfoundland and possibly New Brunswick.
Written, directed, and composed by Leiser, this operatic adaptation depicts the trials and tribulations of the two women, Freydís and Gudrid, who become embroiled in a devastating feud during their return to Vinland.
The libretto was entirely penned in the style of the Icelandic Eddas and features alliterative verse, assonance, internal rhyme, and the use of kennings.
The opera features a libretto written in the style of the Icelandic Eddas, using alliterative verse, assonance, internal rhyme, and kennings. Photo: Albino Fawn Productions
A crowning achievement
The film's appearance on a major distribution channel is a genuine achievement for the production team.
Speaking to The Viking Herald, Leiser states: "The release of Freydís and Gudrid is the culmination of seven years' work from development to drafting to producing to the execution of the visual effects."
The completion of the film encompassed a location shoot in Iceland, a recording in a studio in New York, where the performers had to be separated from each other during the COVID pandemic, and a lengthy but innovative post-production process.
The film received several cultural grants and was partially funded by a film production company Leiser co-founded. The feature-length opera follows a shorter version released in 2023.
- READ MORE: Women and power in the Viking Age - A primer
The opera has been available on Prime Video since its release, while the theatrical premiere will take place at Scandinavia House in New York on July 16. Photo: Albino Fawn Productions
Ready to watch
The movie version of the opera will receive its global cinematic premiere at the Scandinavia House in New York on July 16. The Scandinavia House is a cultural center affiliated with the American-Scandinavian Foundation, which helped fund the film's production.
The opera is now available on Prime Video, Amazon's streaming service with 230 million subscribers. The album, which contains a longer 136-minute concert hall performance of the work, is available on Apple Music.
"Prime Video is the perfect outlet for this project as it adds to the historical fiction and fantasy drama offerings that audiences have come to regard as culturally foundational," Leiser states.
"Apple Music is a wonderful outlet for the opera album because they have been carrying my music since the beginning."
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