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

294 Camilla Hambro
been done with the greatest of ease and few expenses – something which
made the dismissive attitude towards Skjøn Karen even more baffling:
Not long ago the same theatre listed works of Danish male colleagues,
who certainly did not rise above Miss Griebel’s Skjøn Karen, on the contrary.
Producing her opera simultaneously with the success of the Women’s
Exhibition could have been a very appropriate supplement, and more importantly,
it would no doubt have had a particularly good chance to attract
a big audience. Hopefully, the theatre board has not yet had its last word
on the matter. A young lady of 24 composing a talented and technically immaculate
opera is an event worth celebrating. Not only would a fiery prison
execution of Skjøn Karen within the walls of the theatre be unfair, but it
would be unwise in the highest degree (Dagbladet, 29 August 1895).
Munktell, Griebel and other sleeping beauties
Munktell and Griebel’s experiences as women composers staging ballets
and opéra comiques were probably quite different from the experiences of
their male colleagues. The “producerly texts” of the opéra comique and the
ballet illuminate bourgeoisie women’s experiences of gendered musical
culture. In both cases the reception materials consist of a broad spectrum
of everything from apparently fair and balanced descriptions of women mastering
very demanding tasks in brilliant ways to reviews that openly express
general negative attitudes about women’s ability to compose and stage music
for the theatre. Although gender proves to be only one of several aspects
communicated in reviews of the two cases, it is seen as an important plot
trigger. Closely related, yet still following slightly different geographical
and historical paths, Munktell and Griebel offer different historical answers
to how opéra comique and ballet music by women represented, questioned
and (de)constructed contemporary perceptions of gender.
Munktell found ways of being in the French and Swedish opera world,
which allowed her to stage gender norms at the Royal Theatre in Stockholm
and in Baroness Emma Sparre’s beautiful studio in Paris. The plot
she set to music draws attention to how women were depicted and even
ridicules professors of art. In this way she and Fallström epitomise intrinsic
performativity in their own culture together with how they imagined gender
performativity in renaissance Florence. The fact that In Florence was
produced repeatedly on the Stockholm Royal <strong>Opera</strong> stage and in Sparre’s
studio highlights how systems in different groups interacted and interrelated.
Presumably, In Florence was discussed critically in Baroness Sparre’s