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

Gendered agendas and the representation of gender …
Example 1. Helena Munktell, In Florence, scene 7
The very 1889), long, referred sustained more tone to conditions on the in word the Swedish klar (“clear”) world of art over in the 1800s augmented
than to the actual setting in fifteenth-century Florence.
dominant chord might indicate that the speaker is actually unsure about the clar
A great operatic talent
of the matter and needs time to think about it. Another peculiarity is the canonic
melismatic setting of the word kalfatras (“scrutinised”), a rather old-fashioned
word of Arabic-Dutch origin that literally means caulking. In the music Munkte
emphasises as Jules the Massenet’s word in a and rather Benjamin baroque Godard’s oratorio style, style i.e. “modern” à la Handel, French which
undoubtedly marks a notable contrast to the simplicity of the surrounding music
language. In this way the professors are portrayed as old-fashioned, comic
characters The who advice adore was that, scrutinising in future, she and should attacking take care the of younger it herself, generation; since the as put
the critic of Svenska Dagbladet (31 May 1889), not unlike the “Beckmesserei”
plait manner of Wagner’s Meistersinger.
Hence, Munktell achieved a strong, but natural comic effect through the voi
of the professors’ opera buffa duet, which succeeded in being the most co
283
In general the critics agreed that Munktell’s setting of the libretto provided
a fairly nice impression and that her music revealed a great operatic talent,
even if the writer in Post- och Inrikes Tidningar (31 May 1889) pointed out
that the genre of reference, opéra comique, was not well chosen. Svenska
Dagbladet (31 May 1889) praised the composer’s solos for being harmonically
interesting and melodious and stated that her compositional style resembled
the French school, especially Gounod at certain points, as well
patterns. This was true, he added, not only in composing melodic lines, but
also in the accompaniment figures and piquant harmonic twists à la Lakmé
by Léo Delibes and other “modern” French works. Not only the critic of
Post- och Inrikes Tidningar, but also Lindgren in Aftonbladet (31 May 1889)
pointed out that Munktell’s instrumentation was too heavy compared to
the same French composers, even if it was executed with due diligence.
conductor of the Stockholm <strong>Opera</strong>, Dente, apparently was unable to understand
her intentions and therefore to a greater or lesser degree somehow
corrupted them.