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

Gendered agendas and the representation of gender …
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studio. Since the work was not staged in established Parisian opera houses,
the artistic value probably did not receive acclaim from her influential and
high-powered audience.
As pointed out by Eva Öhrström in her article “Ett eget rum. Ett kvinnoperspektiv
på musikaliska salonger” (2007), women composers were
successful at using salons to enable their works to reach the public despite
some resistance up until the 1890s. As public music arenas became more
important and women’s rights increased during the 1890s, a backlash can
be observed. At the turn of the century the salon discussions of the first
half of the 1800s were replaced by critics writing in solitude and publishing
reviews in newspapers and journals about what happened in public music
forums controlled by men. Most critics were men; they had the opportunity
to establish the premises for what was true, valid and relevant as well as
run propaganda based on their own aesthetic standards. On the other hand,
newspaper reviews were based on what readers expected, although, in
turn, what readers expected was based on what they were used to reading.
Participating in this larger cultural project several influential male critics
constantly belittled music associated with femininity and womanhood.
When it came to the events surrounding the performance of the ballet The
Rose Time, “The Women’s Exhibition from Past to Present” in Copenhagen
in 1895 we encounter gender as the fundamental structuring category:
Only women could participate in the production. Some critics wrote about
the production of The Rose Time with tongue in cheek, and described the
personal appearance and gestures of the dancers, the conductor and the
orchestral members almost flirtatiously.
For Griebel, choosing to accept the commission for a ballet from the
Copenhagen Women’s Exhibition in 1895 and especially cooperating with a
manager of the music section with so many negative attitudes towards her
women composer colleagues in general and towards assembling a women’s
orchestra in particular may have presented strong dilemmas. Probably
her realm of artistic possibilities was limited by the commissioned work’s
relation to the exhibition’s “difference feminist” ideals. 11 Since only women
were able to participate in the production, she must have been aware
that she was composing for a production in which amateurs and professionals
would work side by side. In Griebel’s urge to compose stage music
and question the male ballet tradition, we meet a daring individual voice
stripped of the position, power and thorough music education of her influential
male colleagues. Exploring Griebel’s guest appearances as a ballet and
11 Cf. footnote 8.