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

Performative elements and sources
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from which wing or side the actor would enter the stage. It was also important
to ensure smooth changes of scenery.
Nineteenth-century city theatres usually hired a music director but in
lower position of Kapellmeister (in German-speaking countries during the
approximate period 1500-1800, the word Kapellmeister often designated the
music director for a monarch or a nobleman). The Kapellmeister was employed
mainly in court theatres and larger cities. The first reference to a
Kapellmeister in smaller companies dates back to the 1840s, and in Tallinn
the title was first used in 1860 when the restored and modernised theatre
building was opened. 10 The noble title of Kapellmeister was devalued during
the century, and at the dawn of the twentieth century Tallinn had three Kapellmeister
– for opera, operetta and Posse 11 (Pappel 2003, p. 177).
The chorus included “singing actors” and local amateurs, made up of
eight women and eight men on average. The orchestra also comprised local
musicians, additional players being hired from the city orchestra Stadtkapelle
(which in the middle of the century had nine players) or the military
band when necessary. The theatre orchestra usually had between 17 and
22 musicians, increasing to 30 at the end of the century (Pappel 2003, pp.
177-178).
Sources
Up until the mid-nineteenth century the “work” (Werk) in music theatre
practice was not the score of the opera, but the performance. The score (in
practice the vocal score) was the raw material from which the performance
was created according to local conditions. Successful operas travelled from
theatre to theatre via manually written copies, printed and vocal scores being
very expensive at the beginning of the century. The remarks of the
director or prompter were made on the handwritten libretti. 12 The situation
changed in the middle of the century when advances in printing technology
brought down the cost of printing sheet music. On the other hand, the
authors’ rights were regulated, which meant that the composer’s contract
was not with the theatre but with the printing company, which published the
10 At that time the Kapellmeister was the well-known musician Louis Saar.
11 Posse was a satirical play depicting the life and conditions of the German lower
middle class, and containing a great deal of music – duets, choruses, dances and an
extended overture.
12 Here I refer to Arne Langer’s extensive research (Langer 1997, see References) and
my own observations.