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

Two <strong>Opera</strong>s or One – or None
151
plans. The opera’s Finnish translation was completed, encouraged by Richard
Faltin, who had suggested the idea to Bergbom. One choice being
considered as the new opera conductor, Martin Wegelius, was also a Wagnerite.
There would have been an ideal cast available in Helsinki for Tannhäuser
in 1880. But the collapse of the two opera companies caused a
backlash against modern German repertory and fostered the dominance
of Italian repertory to the neglect of modern French operas. We can argue
that the competition inevitably delayed the production of Wagner’s music
in Helsinki by some 25 years. Wagner’s music returned to Helsinki in 1904
and 1905, when Bergbom himself was convalescing from a serious illness,
unable to work. His assistant, Jalmari Finne, helped in the productions of
three operas: Tannhäuser and Die Walküre were conducted and produced by
Armas Järnefelt, and Lohengrin was conducted and produced by Robert Kajanus.
The Swedish Theatre performed Siegfried in 1910, under the baton
of Georg Schnéevoigt.
Among the winners was the audience, in the sense that since that time,
opera could be regularly seen and heard in Helsinki. But the audience also
lost, because the repertory of available works was narrow (Italian), and
there was no permanent domestic opera company. Nikolai Kiseleff resigned
from the Swedish Theatre in 1880, and Kaarlo Bergbom had to readjust
himself to leading the Drama Department, which fell into his hands. Another
winner was Finnish-language literature, drama and theatre.
The winners were also the other sectors of musical life in Helsinki. The
year 1882 saw the founding of both the Helsinki Music Institute (later renamed
the Sibelius Academy) and the Philharmonic Orchestra, destined to
be the first permanent symphony orchestra in Finland. These organisations
were the fruits of the professional energy of that decade. A diversified development
of music and theatre was needed before opera could be reborn.
The episode of the two competing opera companies in Helsinki in the
1870s was an incredibly intense phase in the city’s cultural life. In 1911 a
Domestic <strong>Opera</strong> (Kotimainen ooppera – Inhemska operan), the present Finnish
National <strong>Opera</strong>, was founded, intentionally as a bilingual institution.
Archives and collections
Helsinki
Kansalliskirjasto (KK) [National Library]
Käsikirjoituskokoelma [Manuscript collection]
Achté (née Strömer), Emmy Coll 4.