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

180 Ulla-Britta Broman-Kananen
“heavy” and educationally acceptable repertoire was performed at the Finnish
<strong>Opera</strong> Company.
In renewing its repertoire, the New Theatre closely followed the footsteps
of the Royal New Theatre. All of the operas staged at the New Theatre
were also in the repertoire of the Royal Swedish <strong>Opera</strong> in Stockholm,
even during the same season, and all the material, such as the librettos in
Swedish and the piano scores, were directly imported from the Royal Swedish
<strong>Opera</strong>. 43 The scores and the translated librettos were thus easily available
and could be re-printed more or less as such in Helsinki.
The theatre’s choice of three French grand operas staged with an inexperienced
company during one and the same season is surprising. There
could be several explanations for this: a) the grand operas might have been
a practical solution; the company had many male voices, but only one (rather
weak) female singer; b) another reason could have been that the grand
operas offered the theatre an opportunity to show off its staging resources,
the ones so envied by the Finnish Theatre and Bergbom (see Paavolainen’s
chapter in this book). The grand operas certainly offered the theatre a
chance to use the possibilities of the stage in full, something noted in the
press, which reported on newly bought wings, electric lights (for the moon
light in Robert) and fairly advanced stage machinery. The staging even included
at least parts of ballets, which as a rule were excluded from performances
by the Finnish <strong>Opera</strong> Company. Moreover, these operas relied on
a good orchestra more than less grandiose works; the theatre’s orchestra
company (orkesterbolag) was quite acceptable with 21 musicians and more
when needed (although the orchestra still must have been undermanned
in relation to what it should have been); c) French grand operas also have
a political dimension and thus might have been well suited for the national
statement the theatre wanted to make. For example, La muette’s reputation
as “revolutionary” in both a compositional and a political sense was
well known in Helsinki, as far as one can judge from the press comments. 44
It also suited the Svecomans (the Swedish-minded Swedish liberals) that
the people (in the chorus) on stage sang in Swedish. Yet it is perhaps not
43 The librettos were published for the Helsinki audience with only minor revisions,
made necessary because of the cuts in the productions at the New Theatre. Seven of
these librettos have been bound into a single volume, located in the Fennica collection,
(kansalliskokoelma Fennica), in the National Library of Finland. The Swedish theatre’s
archive also preserves printed scores of La muette and Rigoletto, on which the label
“Royal Swedish Theatre” can be seen on the opening pages. Linda Röske-Lund’s score
of Il Trovatore is also preserved in the archive, with the texts (of Leonora’s part) written
between the lines in Norwegian and in Swedish. (STA/SLC.)
44 Berndtson in FAT 7 November 1878.