Livlægens Besøg (The Visit of the Royal Physician) - an Opera in 2 Acts by Bo Holten (2007-08). Libretto: Per Olov EnquistDramaturg: Eva Sommestad Holten Vocal score available: WH30885 Cast: Johann Friedrich Struensee: Bass Baritone King Christian VII: Tenor Queen Caroline Mathilde: Mezzo Soprano Ove Høegh-Guldberg: Bass Queen Dowager Juliane Marie: Soprano Count Shack Carl Rantzau: Bass King Frederik V: Tenor Enevoldt Brandt: Tenor Bootee-Cathrine: Soprano Synopsis: The Opera isbased on the Swedish writer P. O. Enquist's bestselling historical novel The Visit of the Royal Physician. In 1765 the young German doctor Johann Friedrich Struensee arrives at the Danish Court in Copenhagen as newly appointed Royal Physician for the mentally unstable King Christian the VII. Close to the power and the young Queen Caroline Mathilde Struensee dreams of making a better world for everyone. As time goes by he usurps still more power and tries to reform Denmark according to the ideas of the Enlightenment. Struensee engages in a fatal romantic relation to Caroline Mathilde and his bold grasp of power ends bloody.
