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

244 Jens Hesselager
of Pauline Rung was always a balanced one, or at least it was interpreted
that way. Like Forconi, Rung was really more of a mezzo soprano. Jenny
Lind on the other hand – like Madame Forconi, Pauline Rung’s almost exact
contemporary 38 – having also experienced voice problems that seem to have
been somewhat comparable to Pauline Lichtenstein’s, 39 came to be known
for her rather bright, light and agile soprano voice – a voice well suited to
the Italian bel canto repertoire, yet in a particularly “Nordic” or “Scandinavian”
way (she was called, as is well known, the “Swedish nightingale”).
Jenny Lind first appeared in Copenhagen in 1843 and was very well received,
including by Hans Christian Andersen who immediately brought
her flowers. Jenny Lind and Pauline Rung each in their own way seem to
have satisfied a desire for an operatic voice that was able to balance southern
and Nordic qualities.
And if, in 1842, Pauline Rung’s voice, and the whole of her stage appearance,
may have been associated with the Jewish identity of Rachel, it
seems that this stage identity was not so strongly and inescapably attached
to her as to inhibit her from taking on other roles. In 1844 she starred as
Valentine in Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots (premiered in Paris in 1836), and
in 1845 she was the Danish girl Ida in Henrik Rung’s grand opera, Stormen
paa Kiøbenhavn (cf. Hesselager 2010). As if calculated to complete
this trajectory, which seems to have made her more “Nordic” or “Danish”
every year, Pauline Rung was the first to appear in the role of Kirsten, in
Hans Christian Andersen and J.P.E. Hartmann’s opera Liden Kirsten, which
premiered in 1846. Liden Kirsten is a relatively short opera based on a legend
from a Danish medieval ballad, which may be said to be at the heart of
Danish national-romantic culture. At the time of the premiere, Andersen
was in Italy, so he did not witness personally Pauline Rung’s creation of the
role of Kirsten. A friend, Jonna Stampe, however, wrote to him of the performances,
not only of Liden Kirsten, but also of his romantic play, Mulatten,
which was performed around the same time – this time with a new figure in
the role of Cecilie, the Jewish actress Emma Meier:
“Liden Kirsten” has now been performed and was received with much
applause; how lovely it is, dear poet! And how I find the music and text
in complete harmony with each other; it is the loveliest dramatised
medieval ballad imaginable, so Nordic and so healthy, I wish you might
have heard it! Hansen sings as beautifully and with such heart as only
he knows how to, and M[a]d[ame] Rung represents the most lovable
38 Jenny Lind was born in 1820; Felicita Forconi was born in 1819.
39 Cf. Ingela Tägil’s text in this anthology.