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

288 Camilla Hambro
Avis, compared to the other parts of the event (the prologue, Emma Gad’s
play and the solo songs), the ballet steadily improved the atmosphere in
the audience; the final tableau led to stormy applause (Københavns Adresse
Avis, 29 August 1895).
Loving dramatic composition with life and soul
Whereas Liebmann had no faith in women composers and called on men to
rescue the exhibition’s musical level, Griebel had great confidence in her
own ability to compose music that was just as original as men’s. This was
something the male critics neither believed nor expected. Nevertheless, in
1895 Griebel was considered the most prominent Danish woman composer
(Politiken 5 September 1895). In a Dannebrog interview about I Rosentiden,
she stated her ambitions: “I love dramatic composition with my life and soul
and still hope to make my way in this genre”. Performed before an elite
Copenhagen audience, the production was created not only by Griebel, but
also by a woman author, Emma Gad, and a woman choreographer, Jeanette
Tardini-Hansen, an all-women’s orchestra conducted by a woman, Orpheline
Olsen, and women dancers exclusively on stage (even in male roles).
Aside from Bjørn Bjørnson, the stage director, not one man was involved in
the production. Hence, we come across gender as the fundamental structuring
category: Only women could participate in the production.
A pièce de résistance preferably done without men
Politiken’s critic found this situation invigorating and refreshing: “If yesterday
evening also had a deeper idea, then it must be sought in the ballet,
which documented that the art of ballet not just do without men, but preferably
should be without men” [italics added by the author] (Politiken, 29
August 1895). Groundbreaking attempts were made to expose the neutrality
of the male gender on stage as merely an illusion. Kvinden og Samfundet:
Udstillings-Tidende remarked how particularly enjoyable it was to see
women in men’s roles and that most women would agree on men having
the largest entitlement to mimes, while being dispensable as solo dancers
(6 September 1895, no 9a). This suggests that ballets were gendered in diverse
ways and makes it appropriate to view the 1895 all-women production
at the Dagmar Theatre as a visualisation and a comment on all-men ballet
performances at the dawn of “the Women’s Century”.
At this first performance of I Rosentiden all the Royal Theatre’s dancers
as well as some of the actresses from the private theatres were on stage,
even in men’s roles. Women dressing up in men’s clothes caused a sensa-