On July 16, join us for a screening and film talk on Freydís and Gudrid, an epic musical based on the Icelandic Vinland sagas, with director/writer/composer and ASF Fellow Jeffrey Leiser!
Written in the 13th century, the Saga of the Greenlanders and Eirik the Red’s Saga contain the first-ever descriptions of North America through seafaring adventures amid storms, disease and navigational mishaps. Written, directed, and composed by Leiser, this operatic adaptation follows a group of merchants on a journey to reclaim ancestral lands, as two women — Freydís (Kirsten Chambers) and Gudrid (Micaëla Oeste) — face a brutal reckoning. Created with the support of ASF, Freydís and Gudrid will also be available as an opera album on iTunes and Spotify on July 7.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Jeffrey Leiser is an American director/producer, composer, and writer/editor. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 with a selection from Freydís and Gudrid. He was a 2018 Composer-in-Residence at the Guild Hall of East Hampton and is the recipient of cultural fellowships from the American-Scandinavian Foundation, American Scandinavian Society, and American Scandinavian Association. His music was featured at the Whitney Museum of American Art Dreamlands exhibition. He won a gold medal for best score at the Park City Film Music Festival. He has released 12 albums of original music/scores. His symphony The Summit was broadcast by ClassicFM and Radio Nacional de España and received positive reviews from Gramophone Magazine and I Care If You Listen. Jeffrey is the founder of Set Theory Productions LLC, an affiliate of Albino Fawn Productions.