Buckle your seatbelts, everyone. This is one long, emotional roller-coaster of a musical, giving Schonburg’s Les Mis and Miss Saigon a run for it (sadness) money. I’m talking about Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ (of ABBA fame) epic Swedish musical Kristina från Duvemåla. Kristina’s entire score apparently clocks in at around 4 hours, with it’s 1996 Swedish Cast Recording, reviewed here, running just under 3 hours. The melodies are rich, the orchestrations are unique, gorgeous, and soaring. Andersson’s musical about hope, change, life, and death always fills my heart with love and sadness.

It’s been 15 years now since its incarnation, and Kristina has never seen the same level of success as Andersons’ hits Mamma Mia or Chess, but this album is absolutely mandatory for all theatre enthusiasts. And I’ll explain why:

I first heard this musical back in 2001 when I was also introduced to the, not quite as long, Complete Danish Cast Recording of Chess. It was the first time I had heard Chess in its entirety, and I was eager to hear another Andersson/Ulvaeus epic musical. The Swedish duo were spiking in popularity here in the states due to their Broadway transfer of the wildly successful Mamma Mia in the summer of ’01. My friend in London ripped the 1996 recording of Kristina (at 30kbps, yikes) and sent it my way. It remained, low quality, in my collection for 15 years until I recently acquired a decent recording, prompting me to give it a focused, well-deserved full listen-through. I listened to this album around 3 times over the course of the week, often jumping back a few numbers to reevaluate and re-live the songs.

Act 1 highlights for me include the exclamatory song “Nej!” (“No”) and the haunting choral number “Vi öppnar alla grindar” (“We Open Up The Gateways”). Both numbers highlight Andersson’s ability weave powerful solos with layered choral numbers, and beautiful orchestrations, never giving us a dull moment. The track “Blonder pa havet” takes us soaring through the clouds with a string-heavy melody. As soon as you think Act 1 is slowing down, we are hit with a bass-heavy, One-Night-In-Bangkok-y, driving number Löss (“Lice”), with a creepy, skin-crawling, driving tempo of 7/8 time, this song keeps us on our toes and our hairs raised. Helen Sjöholm delivers verbose, Swedish lines with fierceness and incredible speed. The chorus responds with emotion to her cries and by the end, you can almost feel the lice crawling all over your body. Act 1 ends with “Min Anstrakan” (My Apple Tree), an Anthem-esque theme, which is quite beautiful.

Act 2 begins with a proper entr’acte that showcases the scores blend of classical/acoustic and mild-electric sounds, and then dives into a “Merano” style chorus. I’ll be honest, Act 2 doesn’t grab my attention like some of the numbers in Act 1, which doesn’t surprise me as I’ve never seen the show and have not formed an emotional connection to the plot or characters. The music is worth everything though. “Ljusa kvallar om varen” feels like a slower and more mellow version of Chess’ Mountain Duet. It’s clear that Anderrson has a very specific style to his music: beautiful, soaring string-heavy melodies interlaced with driving upbeat tempo pop songs with a driving electro beat, with Kristina’s music usually falling into the former category.

Not having seen the show, I don’t know much of the story, but you can feel the shift from a feeling of hope and excitement in Act 1 into a more tragic Act 2, full of desperation and loss. A quick glance at a plot summary confirms this and… oh my, it’s tragic indeed! Spoiler: after suffering a miscarriage halfway through Act 2, she succumbs to death in her husbands arms. The melodies leading up to the Act 2 finale confirm a feeling of sadness, loss, and hurt. We get a heart-racing argument in “Prariens drotting” into an oddly tempo-ed song Vildgras with a major lift in the melody, and a driving chorus with a full choir. Middle of Act 2 we hear the moving ballad “Gold Can Turn To Sand,” which I believe had some moderate commercial success in Sweden, understandably so. By the song Wild Cat Money, I now fully feel the sensation of impending despair. After a few more slightly depressing melodies, we hear her death in the last number. Not speaking Swedish, I can still feel the pain, suffering, and love in her voice.

In conclusion, although Andersson is not a hugely prolific theatre composer, he has marked the industry with his own, unique style. Any fan of the epic musical tragedy genre should give this one a listen, and if you’re a fan of Chess, you’ll definitely enjoy this one.