Content warning: abuse, death, fire, violence

Fanny and Alexander is a grand opera in two acts, adapted from the film by Ingmar Bergman by Mikael Karlsson and Royce Vavrek, with support from the Bergman Estate and artistic consultation from Cinematograph AB (Ingmar Bergman Jr. and Claes du Rietz).

ACT 1

Christmas at the Ekdahls.  Helena, the matriarch of the family, awaits her family’s return from the annual nativity pageant. A parade of relatives floods the decorated house and we meet Oscar and Emilie and their children Fanny and Alexander, as well as Oscar’s brothers Carl and Gustav Adolf, alongside their respective wives, Lydia and Alma.  The holiday celebration also welcomes the family friend Isak Jacobi, a paramour of Helena’s from many years prior.  Oscar, being the eldest son, gives a Christmas toast, and becomes flush, the family believing that he has just had too much to drink.  Days later, while rehearsing a for a production of “Hamlet”, Oscar suffers a massive heart attack, falling to his death while on stage.  Emilie takes time to consider her future, ultimately deciding to leave the family and remarry.  She uproots young Fanny and Alexander from the warmth of the theatrical Ekdahl clan, and decides to take as her husband the town’s Bishop, living with him in the church’s quarters.  The Bishop proves to be a strict disciplinarian, raising the children with a rigidity that they are unaccustomed to.  The children are also introduced to Justina, a long-serving maid who aligns herself with the brutality of the Bishop.  When Alexander reveals to Justina that he saw the apparitions of two girls who died while under the Bishop’s care, the maid alerts the Bishop to Alexander’s lies, who seeks to extract a confession from Alexander by means of a severe beating.  Alexander is locked away in the attic to reflect on his behavior.

ACT 2

With Emilie discouraged about the abusive discipline of her children at the hands of her new husband, and the laws meaning that the children would legally belong to the Bishop if she fled, it is up to Isak to try to trick the Bishop into handing over the Fanny and Alexander.  Isak makes a deal with the Bishop to buy a large wooden chest at a fair price.  When the Bishop finalizes the contract, Isak unlocks Alexander from the attic and hides the two children in the chest, easily walking them out of the Bishop’s home.  Isak brings them to his home, a fantastical world of puppets and theatrical magic.  It is here that Alexander meets one of Isak’s two sons, Aron, and is told of the other son Ismael, an enigmatic figure with mystical powers that force him to lead a solitary life.  While Fanny and Alexander are safe at Isak’s, the Bishop appeals to Carl and Gustav Adolf in hopes of getting his stepchildren back.  No deal is made.  Late at night, Alexander gets up to use the bathroom, and finds himself in the company of Ismael.  The two have a spiritual communion where Alexander reveals his inner rage and hatred for the Bishop.  Back at the church, Emilie drugs the Bishop with bromide, giving her enough time to escape his clutches.  In his drugged stupor, the Bishop knocks over a kerosene lamp, lighting himself and the church on fire.

Months later the Ekdahls join as a family once more, welcoming Emilie, Fanny, Alexander, and a new baby back into the fold.