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

274 Camilla Hambro
mantic affection for the musical composition was considered touching and
unselfish. According to Svensk Musiktidning (8 June 1897), Munktell was
favourably known in Sweden as a prolific song and piano composer prior to
the staging of her opéra comique, I Firenze. However, the Nordic press, not
least the leading Stockholm critic Adolf Lindgren 2 in Aftonbladet (31 May
1889), considered her well-known Norwegian composer colleague, Agathe
Backer Grøndahl (1847–1907), to be superior when it came to giving spontaneous
musical expression to more immediate and lyrical moods. On the
other hand, Munktell’s œuvre was deemed superior to her Norwegian colleague’s,
owing to its breadth and seriousness. While Backer Grøndahl was
viewed as most ingenious when it came to romances and piano pieces, the
more lyrically-talented Munktell was praised for her epic and theatrical interests.
Eventually, these interests led her into a musical field previously
taboo for Scandinavian women composers, namely operas and symphonic
poems. Her orchestral works in particular were believed to reveal a talent
far from commonplace or dilettante. In general, commentary in the Nordic
press was prone to explain that praise of a woman composer did not mean
condemnation of male composers, even though they were not necessarily
more conscientious or better. 3
In Florence: A small opéra comique
In 1889 the Royal Swedish <strong>Opera</strong> witnessed an unusual occurrence when
Munktell’s one-act opéra comique I Firenze (In Florence), a setting of a libretto
by the Swedish author Daniel Fallström, was submitted early in
the spring of that year for production the same season. Conducted by her
former composition teacher, Joseph Dente, In Florence was produced on 30
May 1889 and programmed during two further seasons, 1891 and 1892, appearing
just before Donizetti’s operas The Daughter of the Regiment and The
Elixir of Love. The setting and background of the plot were not set in Sweden,
but in an Italian art studio; Munktell’s music, however, was created in
a light French style. The successes of the performances were confirmed by
public acclaim as well as by the positive reception in daily newspapers and
music magazines.
2 The music critic for Aftonbladet, Karl Adolf Lindgren (1846–1905), was also a music
historian and translator. Under the signature A. L. he wrote extensively about music,
musicians and music theory in the first edition of Nordisk Familjebok. As a critic and
author, he was valued for his extensive knowledge, his thoroughness and impartiality.
3 This is stated, for instance, in an unidentified newspaper clipping, signed Patrik
V., preserved in Munktell’s clippings archive at the Stockholm Music and Theatre
Museum.