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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she was more of a politician than her brother, who was an aesthetician, an
enthusiast and a pragmatic artist.
We do not know whether Kaarlo was satisfied with his sister’s categorical
refusal. However, he had no ideas of his own for Finnish performances
for the next year. Perhaps he could have directed something in the Swedish
Theatre Company, but in fact he was planning to write a second dissertation
for the Imperial Alexandre University in Helsinki, which would give him a
reason to continue his stay abroad for literary studies. Bergbom returned to
Helsinki from Berlin in early October of 1871 and was soon invited to join a
new Fennoman project: a newspaper coming out in Swedish, Morgonbladet,
which would serve as a moderate camouflage for the Fennoman radical
programme. It was important to obtain sympathisers among the Swedishspeaking
educated classes.
In November of 1871 the Swedish Theatre Company highlighted its musical
repertory by performing von Flotow’s entire opera Martha in Swedish.
To promote a moderate language policy, a sample issue of Morgonbladet
reviewed Martha on 5 December 1871 with a positive appraisal and without
any irony. The review was unsigned, but it can probably be attributed either
to Kaarlo Bergbom or to his younger colleague. Morgonbladet also reported
on Ida Basilier’s debut in Stockholm as Rosina in a Swedish-language Barberaren
av Sevilla. In February 1872 Bergbom began work on an abridged
adaptation of The Barber of Seville in Finnish, Sevillan parranajaja , so that
Basilier could sing her Rosina parts for Helsinki audiences. For this occasion
Bergbom again asked if he could hire the New Theatre’s orchestra, to
which Kiseleff agreed. A compilation of the Rosina scenes was performed
in early June of 1872 in the Arkadia.
Bergbom’s public manoeuvres to “invade” the New Theatre
(spring 1872)
The three events reported above were moments of some contingency. If
Kiseleff had been working in his theatre in the autumn of 1869, he would
probably have shown a more tolerant approach to Bergbom’s ideas of having
amateur performances or an operatic group in the New Theatre. A less
arrogant or less martyred opinion among the Fennoman chorus members
in the Trubaduuri production might have given them access to the New
Theatre. A less categorical attitude on the part of Emilie Bergbom concerning
the warrants list of 1871 might have resulted in her brother Kaarlo’s en-