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

266 Kristel Pappel
tournaments and practically it was one of the roles that were sung quite
often...
http.//www.karelburian.cz/english/reval.php>, 8.09.2012.
This shows something about the life of an opera singer in those times: he
found out only a couple of days in advance that he was to perform in a
work belonging to the permanent repertoire, and in what role. It was a typical
test for a new singer. Even though the words had slipped his mind, he
could recall them quickly, and during the performance he could trust the
prompter. Burian took private singing lessons for a short time before moving
to the stage. He took major roles in Brno for a brief period until the
theatre went bankrupt, and then he found a place in Tallinn City Theatre
for a season. He learned to act by doing it, using colleagues as models. This
leads on to the issue of singers’ acting skills, and the kind of corporeal presence
and expression they could convey. Sources in Tallinn do not give any
direct evidence. Thus, the next stage in the research would be to compare
the guides to acting and performance reviews (if they exist) in other city
theatres within the German nineteenth-century cultural space. Clemens
Risi successfully analysed Wagner’s comments on a production of Der fliegende
Holländer in Weimar, 26 comparing them with the acting tuition that
was prevalent at the time (Risi 2011). The comments constituted a vision
of the ideal based on what Wagner, who was an active theatregoer and also
enjoyed drama, had seen. How was this ideal realised on stage? It would
also be interesting to take a closer look at the contemporary criticism of
operetta and drama productions at the Tallinn City Theatre. There is more
information about the direction, and especially about the gestures of singers:
opera singers sometimes performed in operetta.
One can nevertheless draw some conclusions about elements of performance
from the information in the Tallinn City Theatre archives. It gives
a picture of the spatial and visual realisation of the productions, of the typical
placing of the characters on the stage and of the painted sets (as well as
other objects on stage such as tables and chairs). One can imagine (and in
the case of Verdi’s Aida even reconstruct) the orchestra sound and instrumentation
that were modified to accommodate the small number of musicians,
as well as the mannerisms of the singers. Director’s copies and the
libretti used by the prompter and the stage manager give a picture of the
stage machinery and its use.
26 Wagner was in exile in Switzerland in 1852 when Liszt wanted to produce the opera
in Weimar and asked for help.