Built in 1753, the Ulriksdal Theatre, also known as Confidencen, is the oldest preserved palace theatre in Sweden. The empty theatre provides a setting for a charming musical harlequinade, set to pieces by Gluck, in which a band of commedia dell’arte actors takes over Ulriksdal and banishes the malevolent spirits and demons who have allowed the theatre to fall into decay.

Gluck had an insatiable appetite for success and its rewards, and also for food and drink. In 1787, he finally gorged himself to death and died while on a carriage ride with his devoted wife. This fatal outing is the starting point of Inger Åby’s stylised dramatisation of Gluck’s life, set to some of his most beautiful music and filmed in historic settings around Stockholm, including the Drottningholm Palace, with its magnificent eighteenth-century theatre.