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

130 Pentti Paavolainen
ences and cover fees would be to give Fennoman nationalist students the
opportunity to perform in the New Theatre on evenings it was free? There
are no documents to support his having made such a radical suggestion, but
Kiseleff had devoted time and energy to promote all domestic art, he had
sung opera in his youth, and he even issued a prize for Finnish-language
drama, won by Aleksis Kivi in 1860.
A new, three-man board for the Swedish Theatre Company was appointed
for the period 1869–1871. The executive was now Karl Aleksander
Weckström, whose qualifications were previously the management of the
old theatre venue, now called the Arkadia. 2 He was assisted by two men,
both with legal training. The stage director Gustaf Gustafsson was responsible
for the daily work. Later in the summer of 1869 enlightened opinion
among the Warrants Society of the Swedish Theatre called for Kaarlo Bergbom
to be added as a fourth man in the leadership, as a literary advisor
or dramaturge (scenisk litteratör). (Aspelin-Haapkylä 1906, I, pp. 141–145)
Bergbom had been proposed “by a rich merchant in town” – probably the
other wealthy industrialist of Russian origin, Paul Sinebrychoff. Bergbom
had already shown what he could do on the stage. Moreover, his own historical
tragedy had been staged with success (Pombal och Jesuiterna [Pombal
and the Jesuits], 1865), and for several years he had served as a reviewer
of Finnish-language literature until he wrote his dissertation on German
historical drama (Det historiska dramat i Tyskland, 1868).
Bergbom was the ideal figure to be involved in the development of all
kinds of domestic theatre on the Grand Duchy’s main stage. In August of
1869 Bergbom decided that the time had come “to change the language of
the New Theatre at one stroke” or at least to introduce Finnish along with
Swedish. His first proposal was that four soloists should be engaged for the
Company as the core of a domestic opera. The actors for the drama should
still be hired from Sweden, owing to their professional qualifications, but a
2 The Arkadia was a wooden theatre that went through many transformations. Drawn
by C. L. Engel in 1827, it faced the Esplanade, standing just east of the present Swedish
Theatre. The house became more comfortable after heating was installed in 1849 and
many other reparations were made to the stage and public areas. In 1861 a new theatre
built of stone was ready to the west (though it soon would be damaged by fire, in
1863). Engel’s theatre was taken down, log by log, and moved outside Helsinki’s toll
bar (Esbo tull). The Fennomans bought the building in 1875. One more major reparation
was done in 1886 to accommodate the Finnish Theatre, which was based there until
the present National Theatre was erected at Railway Square in 1902. Until 1908, the
Arkadia was the location for domestic Swedish troupes before its logs were finally sold.
The present Arkadiankatu (Arkadia Street) commemorates the eight decades of this
important theatrical venue.