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

Gendered agendas and the representation of gender …
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with an evocative middle part featuring good voice leading and successful
instrumentation. The orchestral illustrations are particularly striking when
the curtain rises, allowing the audience to see Florence through the open
window of an attractive art studio.
About not expecting creative femininity to celebrate its greatest
triumph in music drama
Reviewers loved the model’s transformation from Gemma to Duchess and
found some sloppy remarks in the libretto about academics looking down
on the study of nature as a fortunate maneuver. They found this at its clearest
in a chorus revealing the judges, high and wise art professors, as mere
naked emperor, i.e. showing almost no judgement. According to Socialdemokraten
(1 June 1889), Munktell’s music sounded melodious, popular
and more French than Swedish. In a detailed review in Aftonbladet (31 May
1889), the distinguished music writer Lindgren called Munktell “the Nordic
Frenchwoman” and compared her to several other female composers:
In general it has been said that women have no power as creative artists.
Still the visual arts has several notable women, and when it comes
to press coverage, a reference to George Sand suffices to show how
ground-breaking a woman artist can be. However, one should expect creative
femininity to celebrate its greatest triumph in music, the so-called
art of the emotions, yet this is not the case. Obviously, music has many
productive women of the highest rank, but by comparison with the other
arts, the number of productive, ingenious women is lower than in any
other art form. The gifted composer Pauline Viardot certainly sparkles in
France along with her sister Malibran and her daughter Henrietta, who
resided here for a short time. The Germans also have more to show for
themselves: Among them Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, Josephine
Lang, Pauline Fichter, Laura Kahrer-Rampoldt share respectable
talents, and apparently they have even composed music in larger and
more difficult genres, such as fugues and concertos. (The Polish-born
Tekla Badarzewska deserves no mention for being notorious in a dismal
way). In the Nordic countries perhaps Agathe Backer-Gröndahl is the
most ingenious of them all. In Sweden women composers have been
discussed for a long time, but even if an occasional song by Emilie Holmberg,
Hanna Breeman or Mathilda Gyllenhaal has become popular, none
of them has risen above the dilettante level. Recently, Swedish women
composers have endeavoured to become professional composers: we
only mention Elfrida Andrée, Amanda Maier [Röntgen] and Valborg Aulin
to prove our point. Helena Munktell, previously known for her sensitive
and musically interesting songs, has joined them. And, as if confirming
her epithet, “the Nordic Frenchwoman”, her new chosen field is opéra