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

Two <strong>Opera</strong>s or One – or None
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the metaphysics of nationalism or by class theories. Especially in the case
of a struggle within the elite classes and about entertainment and artistic
life, the personalities, their networks, backgrounds and their choices are
consciously made among real alternatives. To illustrate this point in the
context of Finland’s opera activities houses, we have to follow the work of
two key figures.
The first is the young Kaarlo (né Karl) Bergbom (1843–1906), with a PhD
in drama literature, who became a crucial figure in Fennoman activity. The
second is the merchant gentleman, Consul Nikolai Kiseleff (1820–1883),
who was on the board of the New Theatre House Owners’ Company and
was the executive director of the Swedish Theatre Company. Their moves
in the emerging conflict are especially interesting, because all of their actions
seemed to go against their “true wills”. Fortunately, archival material
is available for this investigation: the documents of the New Theatre
House Owners Society (Nya Teaterhus Aktiebolaget) and the documents
of the Swedish Theatre Warrants Society (Garantiföreningen för Svenska
Teatern i Helsingfors), which leased the theatre and then hired actors on an
annual basis. Both sets of documents are in the Svenska Litteratursällskapet
(SLS, the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland). Kiseleff’s personal
letters also can be found in the manuscript collections of Åbo Akademi, the
Swedish University in Turku. On the activities of the Finnish <strong>Opera</strong> and the
Finnish Theatre there are hardly any records before 1877. Thus, we have to
depend on personal correspondence and newspaper reports. The summary
description of Kaarlo Bergbom’s activities in the present article is based
on the author’s prolonged work on a detailed biography of Bergbom and on
close acquaintance with Bergbom’s correspondence with his sister and his
friends, located in the Suomalainen Kirjallisuuden Seura (SKS, the Finnish
Literature Society). The basic narrative is given in Aspelin-Haapkylä’s
work (1906–1910) noted above.
This standard Fennoman narrative went unquestioned until 2001, when
Hanna Suutela pointed out that the Finnish <strong>Opera</strong> Company and the Finnish
Theatre Company actually addressed two different classes of audiences and
observed that a “second beginning” was needed for the Theatre Company
after the fall of the <strong>Opera</strong>. This observation contradicted the myth of a homogeneous
and a democratic vernacular movement; indeed, it showed that
the movement was firmly in the hands of the Fennoman elites. (Suutela
2001).
The theoretical discussion to which the current article contributes is
the deconstruction of a “methodological nationalism”, which takes the con-