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

Rachel the Jewess in Copenhagen
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competing Italian company at the Court Theatre (in fact, it refers to the
very event mentioned by Weyse in his letter to Ingemann, quoted above).
The reviewer, it seems, wanted to complain about the bad planning of which
the administration at the Royal Theatre was guilty:
Saturday: “Jødinden”; only less than full house, perhaps because
Mad[ame] Forconi was to receive flowers at the Court Theatre on that
same evening. 6
While criticising the management, the reviewer suggests that a full house
really ought to have been expected, for the event reviewed was in fact a
rather high profile one. This was the long awaited re-opening of Halévy’s
opera, whose first run in 1838 had been very successful, when the then
19- year-old Pauline Lichtenstein made her debut in the role of Rachel.
After a few more sarcastic comments about the administration of the Royal
Theatre, the reviewer then turned to the event:
Yet – finally she came, the long-missed daughter of Zion, and brought
comfort to those who languished, who
“Sat by the Rivers of Babylon crying,
While the zither hung silent in the willows,
And thoughts were set on Zion!” 7
The long-missed daughter of Zion was obviously Jødinden, i.e. Halevy’s opera
and its female protagonist, Rachel. Yet by implication it seems that the
phrase also referred to the soprano, Pauline Lichtenstein, who lost her voice
after seven performances of Jødinden in 1838; 8 thereafter, her presence as a
leading soprano at the Royal Theatre had, in a sense, been “long missed”. 9
If the Italians represented one type of operatic exoticism a “southern” in-
6 ”Løverdag: ’Jødinden’; kun Godt Huus, maaskee fordi Mad. Forconi samme Aften
skulde have Blomster paa Hofteatret.” (Berlingske Tidende, 9 March 1842)
7 ”Dog – endelig kom hun, den længselsfuldt forventede Zions Datter, og bragte Trøst
til de Vansmægtende, som ’Ved Babylons Floder grædende sad,/Mens Zitharen taus
mellem Pilene hang,/Og Tanken i Zion mon være!’” (Ibid.)
8 The last of these performances took place on 16 November 1838. In October
Lichtenstein had also sung the role of Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio in three
performances (Keller 1918, 17 and Overskou 1864, 341-42).
9 She had, however, appeared in various roles in 1840 and 1841, but these were relatively
small and undemanding, and none was comparable in status to that of Rachel (see
Keller 1918, 43). Also, as will be discussed below, she appeared at two concerts in early
1842, shortly prior to the restaging of Jødinden. Critical reception of her reappearance
as Rachel in 1842 nevertheless indicates that this was perceived as her true come-back
to the stage of the Royal Theatre.