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

78 Marianne Tråvén
Conclusion
The manuals by the singing masters in Sweden show a deep reliance on
the vocal didactics used in schools abroad. These foreign models were both
desired and sought after by the management of the Royal Swedish <strong>Opera</strong>.
The choice of singing masters probably fell on singers who came from a
foreign vocal milieu or who had studied and internalised foreign vocal ideals.
In this sense there was no “Swedish singing school” during the period
1773 to 1850 investigated here. The shifting vocal aesthetics at the Royal
Swedish <strong>Opera</strong> were mirrored in the choice of singing masters. At the beginning
of the period Italian vocal schools dominated the stage, replaced for
a short time by German and French ideals mediated through Haeffner and
Du Puy. From the 1820s, however, there was a strong focus on Italian vocal
aesthetics, and later, in the teaching of Isak Berg, a mix with French vocal
techniques.
The didactic material used for this article is diverse and consists of published
as well as unpublished sources. Some of the materials may have had
only marginal importance for students at the Royal Swedish <strong>Opera</strong>. In the
case of Vogler there are no records to prove that his German manual was
ever used at the <strong>Opera</strong>, although it was available in the collection of the
Royal Academy of Music. The same can be said of Stieler’s manual, which
was designed to serve the needs of the Swedish grammar school, with a
clear, but general, method teaching the music fundamentals as well as basic
vocal knowledge. Stieler too had no opportunity to influence how teachers
used his book.
Berg’s “Testament” on the other hand was written as a declaration of
his teaching principles and summarises his experiences from a long life as
a singer and teacher, but it is uncertain whether his students had access to
his writings, even if they heard the content of many of his articles discussed
in their lessons. The exercise material in Berg’s collection gives a much
more diversified view of his teaching than Stieler’s manual, given the differences
in target groups. In both cases there is little evidence of how the
material was used. To answer such questions we would have to examine
declarations by their students, something that lies beyond the scope of the
present article. Another point is the discrepancy between written material
and oral teaching. Vocal exercises have surely been used in different ways,
depending on the singing subject and his or her vocal problems and abilities.
This is indicated by Berg’s exercises, which come in many different ways,
designed for different voices and different vocal problems.