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

166 Ulla-Britta Broman-Kananen
name of the opera Der Freischütz on the programme in Swedish, Friskytten,
by mistake instead of its better-known Norwegian/Danish name Jaegerbruden.
Another example is that the Norwegian singer Olefine Moe sang one
of her roles in Swedish during her visit to the opera, causing a storm in the
press, which accused her of “denationalizing” herself. (Blanc 1899, p. 275)
Not even the Swedish singers’ attempts to sing in Norwegian were met
with any understanding. Besides Norwegian-Swedish, one could now hear
several dialects (vestlandsk, ostlandsk og trondersk) on stage without coming
any closer to a norm for spoken Norwegian (Blanc 1899, pp. 292–293).
The debate escalated when the theatre’s application for state funding
was rejected. This happened late in 1876 and not long before the fire. The
opera had begun to show a deficit, yet it was more popular than ever with
audiences. Josephson had also made the mistake of pushing aside some of
the most established actresses, and a storm arose among the actors opposed
to the opera. The press readily participated in this struggle over the
theatre, and Josephson fought for the opera with his pen on the pages of the
press. (“Ideal och verklighet”; Qvamme 2004, pp. 117-123: Blanc 1899, pp.
301-204).
The Finnish <strong>Opera</strong> Company, 1873–1879
The Finnish Theatre Company was founded in 1872 and its lyrical department
was established one year later, in 1873, the same year Josephson arrived
in Christiania. Like Josephson, the director of the Finnish Theatre
Company, Kaarlo Bergbom (1843–1906), invested much in opera, especially
after 1875, when the theatre settled down in Helsinki and took over the
Arkadia Theatre building vacated by the Russian Theatre company (EAH
1906, pp. 182–185). 18 During its first two years, the opera company was
mainly on tour in Viipuri and Turku, performing only occasionally in Helsinki
because it had no premises of its own. Settling down in Helsinki meant
new challenges and confronting a Swedish-speaking audience.
The Finnish Theatre Company was established with the explicit goal
of establishing the Finnish language as a national tongue. On this question
there was no schism between Bergbom and the theatre’s Board. The goal
was jointly shared, and a particularly welcome project to the figurehead of
the Finnish national movement, the historian Professor Yrjö-Sakari Yrjö-
18 The Russioan Theatre had a pause while its new building the Alexander’s Theatre
was under construction. And opened up again in 1880.