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

Staging a national language
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newly built Alexander Theatre with a newly established Italian opera company,
which began staging exactly the same repertoire as the Finnish and
New Theatres had programmed earlier (Byckling 2009).
Many of the now-unemployed artists travelled from Helsinki to Stockholm
and were later found in productions at the Royal Swedish <strong>Opera</strong>.
Lange had made his debut in Stockholm in 1878 as Lothario in Mignon. He
made a short visit back to Helsinki to sing the same role in the New Theatre
and also starred with Emma Engdahl in Mignon in the autumn of 1878.
Lange stayed in Stockholm until 1883, after which he was engaged by the
Royal Danish <strong>Opera</strong>. In his later years he worked as a voice teacher and was
a frequent critic of Arlberg’s voice method.
As mentioned, the Christiania Theatre burnt down in January of 1877,
and the opera never recovered, although the theatre went on performing
in another building. Josephson’s attempt to establish a permanent opera
in Christiania was over after only two and a half seasons. After the fire
the theatre Board required the opera singers to lower their salaries or the
opera would close down. Arlberg declared that the fire had not affected his
voice, and so he had no reason to agree to this. The rest of the company
followed his example and refused to lower their salaries. Josephson’s condition
for staying in Christiania was that the opera should continue. When this
ultimatum did not succeed, he resigned and returned to Stockholm. 46
Thereafter, the Christiania <strong>Opera</strong> went into an irregular phase with visits
by opera companies from Sweden and Italy and occasional attempts to
establish some permanency. One of the more interesting efforts occurred
in the early 1880s when Olefine Moe returned to Christiania together with
her friend, the Swedish author and critic Mathilda (Mattis) Lundström, and
established an “opera for all” or a folk opera. They even staged a successful
Lohengrin in 1885, one of their last productions (Qvamme 2004, p.170).
And once again Ida Basilier (now Basilier-Magelson and officially a Nor-
46 Or to be specific he went to Italy, from where he persuaded Arlberg to become
his partner in creating a new theatre and opera company, which would tour Uppsala,
Gothenburg, Christianstad, Christiania, Helsinki and Stockholm. Another alternative
was to open a theatre and opera school in Stockholm, which would also perform on a
regular basis. (Josephson to Arlberg, 26 June 1877, SNL). Arlberg did not agree to either
plan, because of the financial risks involved. However, he declared himself willing to
perform at a future theatre when needed (Arlberg to Josephson, 28 October 1877, SNL).
It is also interesting that Josephson mentions in a letter in June of 1877 that he had read
in the newspaper that Arlberg was to become the Finnish <strong>Opera</strong> Company’s director in
Helsinki. These rumours also circulated in Helsinki, although Emilie Bergbom seems
to have been as surprised as everyone else on hearing about them (Emilie Bergbom to
Kaarlo Bergbom, 7 November 1877, FLC/LA).