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

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168 Ulla-Britta Broman-Kananen 13 May 1874). Helsinki with its Swedish-speaking bourgeoisie audience was a challenge for the Finnish national movement. The 1870s also marked a breakthrough for the Fennoman movement in the capital, a place where the movement could channel some of its cultural ambitions through the opera enterprise. For the Fennomans it was tempting to meet the Swedish elite on their own ground in Helsinki and perform opera in Finnish, which was a sign of the Finnish-speaking population’s feeling of belonging to European civilization. It was also very convenient that the Diet was about to meet in the spring of 1877, which meant an opportunity to realise the plans to merge the Finnish <strong>Opera</strong> Company with the Swedish Theatre Company. Already in 1876 when the Finnish opera was reaching a high point, there were clear signs of a looming crisis. The political dimensions behind the opera became more and more obvious and put a great deal of pressure on Bergbom. He also had to live up to the demands sparked by the competition with the New Theatre. Like Josephson in Christiania, Bergbom began to take measures among his staff because the opera company appeared to be too small and too vulnerable in the changed situation. Bergbom’s intentions were to strengthen the company and secure its abilities, including in the event of illness among the singers. A second aim was to raise the standard of the performances. The tenor Ludvig Eriksson was the first to be replaced because he was often hoarse and indisposed and performances were cancelled because of him. He was replaced by another non-Finnish tenor, Josef Navratil (1840–d. ?) from Austrian Bohemia. In the meantime Emmy Strömer and Niklas Achté had married and were expecting their first child in April of 1876 23 ; Emmy Achté’s marital status made her unreliable in Bergbom’s eyes. She was partly replaced by Ida Basilier, who now came to Helsinki regularly during the second half of the decade (or at least until she married in Christiania in 1878 and her career slowed down). 24 Nikolai Achté was replaced as orchestra conductor by Bohuslav Hřímalý. The Finnish Theatre followed the example of the New Theatre and established an orchestra of its own, giving Helsinki two theatre orchestras, which competed for the few professional musicians in town. Not all of these changes were well received, especially not by the Achtés, who started a huge quarrel with the Bergbom siblings and resigned in anger. Thereafter, they performed only occasionally as guests at the opera. 23 Their child was Aino Ackté (1876–1944), who had an international career as an opera singer and was the founder of the Finnish National <strong>Opera</strong> in 1911. 24 Naëmi Ingman (1855–1932), Lydia Lagus (1853–1928) and Alma Fohström (1856– 1936), all Finnish singers at the beginning of their career, were other occasional guests at the opera.
Staging a national language 169 Emmy Achté was persuaded to return to the company by prominent Fennoman leaders, both in public (a newspaper article by the elderly Johan Wilhelm Snellman) as well as in private (in a letter from Yrjö Sakari Yrjö- Koskinen). One of the New Theatre’s Board members, Wilhelm Grefberg, found the means to offer Emmy Achté an engagement with a substantial salary, 20,000 Finnish marks per year, which no doubt was the highest offer ever made for an opera singer in Helsinki. 25 Not all singers or musicians remained as faithful to the theatre as Emmy Achté who rejected the generous offer from the New Theatre. Some of them were quite interested in seeking employment from the New Theatre in the hope of better salaries and working conditions. In due course Hřímalý also realised that the New Theatre’s orchestra was better off than the Finnish Theatre’s orchestra, and he took over after its long-standing conductor Nathan B. Emanuel left the country in 1877. Niilo Kiljander, one of the opera singers who had studied in Stockholm’s Academy of Music (Musikakademin) moved over to the New Theatre at the same time as Hřímalý and changed his name to Nils. 26 The tenor Navratil, who may have been unaware of all the many language disputes, performed at the New Theatre every now and then as needed. (Degerholm’s archive, SLC.) Change-overs also happened the other way round; even a “bloody svecoman” 27 like Martin Wegelius jumped to the “other side” when he became the Finnish Theatre’s orchestra conductor, succeeding Hřímalý in 1878 (EAH 1907, p 424). These thoroughgoing transformations of the company’s volume and structure in the late 1870s were a clear step towards a permanent opera institution, although simultanously, the opera company became more difficult to manage and especially to make profitable. It might also be that the loss of Nikolai Achté, not only as a conductor, but also as a co-director of the rehearsals, began to show. The orchestral conductor Hřímalý was new to his position, and the situation with two orchestras in a small town competing for the few professional musicians was presumably new to him. 25 As a comparison, the New Theatre later paid Linda Röske-Lund 1,600 Finnish marks a month for four months, a sum comparable to the offer to Emmy Achté. On the other hand, we have only second-hand knowledge of Grefberg’s offer to Achté. Emilie Bergbom mentions the sum in a letter to Ida Basilier where she also writes that Grefberg was trying to persuade the choral members of the Finnish <strong>Opera</strong> Company to join the New Theatre’s choir. (Emilie Bergbom to Ida Basilier, 27 September 1876. FLC/LA.) 26 Kiljander had studied with Julius Günther and Oscar Arnoldson in Stockholm. (Jalava: Muistiinpanoja [Memoranda], FLC/LA.) 27 The description “blodig svekoman” appears in a letter from Wegelius to Bergbom, January/February 1875. FLC/LA.
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Anne Sivuoja, Owe Ander, Ulla Britt
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Contents Anne Sivuoja with Owe Ande
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Introduction Anne Sivuoja with Owe
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Introduction ity of vocal resources
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*** Introduction Methodological tra
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Introduction Broman-Kananen, Ulla-B
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Voices
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18 Juvas Marianne Liljas such young
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20 Juvas Marianne Liljas it a usefu
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22 Juvas Marianne Liljas portant in
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24 Juvas Marianne Liljas pany, New
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26 Juvas Marianne Liljas given free
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28 Juvas Marianne Liljas the histor
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30 Juvas Marianne Liljas Consequent
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32 Juvas Marianne Liljas Illustrati
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34 Juvas Marianne Liljas tive the B
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38 Juvas Marianne Liljas but during
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40 Juvas Marianne Liljas pedagogue
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44 Juvas Marianne Liljas institutio
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46 Juvas Marianne Liljas Jussi Bjö
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48 Juvas Marianne Liljas ämnesdida
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50 Formed to Perform Educating Stud
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52 Marianne Tråvén most of them w
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56 Marianne Tråvén of Monvel. The
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58 Marianne Tråvén 1816 the singi
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60 Marianne Tråvén holm 1851), M
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62 Marianne Tråvén Georg Joseph V
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76 Marianne Tråvén From this we c
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84 Ingela Tägil tria and England d
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88 Ingela Tägil Another strange is
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90 Ingela Tägil in boarding houses
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92 Ingela Tägil Published referenc
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Music at the Royal Swedish
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The introduction of Richard Wagner
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Nya Dagligt Allehanda (Stockholm) N
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