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

126 Pentti Paavolainen
The New Theatre employed actors born in Sweden who spoke and later
also sang Swedish on the stage. The local Swedish dialect (today called
finlandssvenska) was not heard on that stage.
In 1873, the Finnish <strong>Opera</strong> Company was founded by Kaarlo Bergbom as
the Lyric Department of the Finnish Theatre Company (1872–1902), which
later became the Finnish National Theatre. Bergbom’s Finnish <strong>Opera</strong> Company
(1873–1879) has been hailed as the work of an heroic pioneer and
was much appreciated in the small city of Helsinki as well as in the rest of
the country. Bergbom’s operatic activities were carried out in the shabby
wooden Arkadia Theatre, which for more than four decades had served as
Helsinki’s first theatre. There was a clear difference, not only in the language,
but also in the quality and facilities of the two theatrical venues, the
New Theatre and the Arkadia Theatre.
The Swedish Theatre Company was also active in performing operas
during the 1870s, until the operatic activities of both companies had to be
abandoned in 1879 because of financial difficulties. Two opera houses were
too much for a small capital. Meanwhile, a third operatic venue was being
built during the same decade. In 1880 the Alexandre Theatre was opened,
funded by the Russian Emperor. Besides Russian theatre groups, the Alexandre
Theatre annually hired Italian operas from St Petersburg and later
on brought in Russian operas for its regular season. (Cf. Byckling 2009, pp.
365–494) Most of the time the Alexandre Theatre offered art and entertainment
in Russian for the substantial population of military officers and their
families who lived in Helsinki.
In his History of the Finnish Theatre Company (1906–1910), Eliel Aspelin-Haapkylä
blamed the downfall of Bergbom’s Finnish <strong>Opera</strong> Company
on the acrimonious competition from the Swedish Theatre Company and
its operatic performances. On the other hand, the Svecomans or “Sveci”
accused the Fennomans of being unrealistic fantasists whose fanaticism
prevented reasonable discussion and who turned down opportunities for
cooperation. Several efforts were made to merge the two opera companies,
but the mergers (whose most serious attempt was tried in 1877) never
succeeded, and opera performances at both houses had to be abandoned.
Thus, regular domestic operatic activity in Finland ceased for more than
two decades. This delay influenced Helsinki’s musical and theatrical life in
many ways. (Cf. Savolainen 1999, pp. 128–129).
The purpose of this article is to look closely at moments when cooperation
seemed to have been possible as well as moments when opportunities
were suddenly lost or shut down. History is not deterministic, either by