Opera on the Move in the Nordic Countries during the Long 19th ...

10
very large extent outside the Nordic frontiers, particularly in France, Italy
and Germany.
For artists, the whole of Europe (and beyond) was a plausible working
area, as musicians were able to take their professional skills across national
boundaries with ease. Jenny Lind, Fritz Arlberg, Algot Lange, Linda
Roeske-Lund and Ludvig Josephson are a few examples among many.
Symptomatically, Jenny Lind’s name was adopted for an English steam
locomotive in 1847 (see the cover of this anthology). But even those who
made their careers mainly or exclusively in their home countries depended,
in one way or another, on an international perspective. For instance,
many singers pursued their professional training abroad, in Paris, Milan or
Dresden, with well-known teachers such as the Garcías (father and son),
Pauline Viardot-Garcia, Mathilde Marchesi, the Lampertis (father and son)
or Jean Jacques Masset – to name a few. In turn they brought these various
pedagogical traditions back home to their own students. In addition,
travelling in general became easier and cheaper, owing to an increasingly
dense railroad network, which enhanced opportunities to obtain professional
experience and know-how abroad (Italy was a preferred destination
for many young artists). In this regard, the opera community resembled
the transnational societies of pedlars, businessmen and criminals who, according
to Clavin (2005), took advantage of their peripatetic way of living
and readily moved across borders (see Preston 2001 on travelling opera
troupes in the United States). In the Nordic countries a common linguistic
background made moving around and working relatively easy, as even
in the Finnish <strong>Opera</strong> Company (1870–1879), which was overtly tied to a
Fennoman political programme, the working language, against all odds,
was Swedish (as shown by Ulla-Britta Broman-Kananen and Pentti Paavolainen
in this volume).
As we in this anthology approach opera as a site for cultural practices
involving real historical persons, we distance ourselves from the kinds of
cultural studies that concentrate on cultural representations enhanced in
and by opera (see, for example, Mary Ann Smart, ed. 2000 or Kramer 2007).
But, instead of giving an overview of cultural processes extending back
more than a hundred years, this anthology addresses particularities: events,
productions, guest performances, travelling musicians, personal ties within
the opera profession, as well as turning points in individual careers (see, for
instance, the articles by Ingela Tägil – “Jenny Lind’s Vocal Strain” – as well
as Jens Hesselager’s on Pauline Rung’s career and vocal problems).