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

Introduction
ity of vocal resources and musicians (for the opera orchestras). <strong>Opera</strong>s from
central Europe, often from Paris, were performed in the national languages
of the North: Danish, Swedish, Finnish or Norwegian. The translations not
only affected the voice-language-musical relationship, but also offered a
chance to re-cast the semantic message in a more nuanced way (Marvin
2010; Broman-Kananen 2011). Furthermore, staging an opera in a national
language at a local theatre offered a means of enhancing political importance
of that particular language, firstly, by making it loudly audible in a public
space and secondly, by tying it to central-European urban cultural practice.
This tactic was wielded as a cultural instrument in a political power game,
for instance, in Kristiania (Oslo) in the conflict between the Norwegian and
Danish languages and in Helsinki between Swedish and Finnish (a matter
addressed by Ulla-Britta Broman-Kananen and Pentti Paavolainen in this
volume).
Several European cities, such as Paris and St Petersburg, boasted many
opera theatres, which not only guaranteed their audiences a constant flow
of opera performances, but also offered opportunities for composers, musicians,
singers, stage designers, and the like. But in the Nordic countries,
such bounty was generally not the case, as only Sweden (Stockholm) and
Denmark (Copenhagen) had long traditions with established opera houses.
Finland and Norway each had a discontinuous and episodic opera history
with short-lived efforts to establish a permanent institution. In practice,
this amounted to a few private opera companies, some of them managed by
female opera singers (such as Emmy Achté and Emma Engdahl in Finland
and Olefine Moe in Norway), and occasional visits either by private opera
troupes or companies based in the neighbouring royal opera houses, such
as the Royal Swedish <strong>Opera</strong>. The result was that novelties from central
European stages, particularly Paris, were presented to Danish and Swedish
audiences at a relatively quick pace, whereas Norwegian and Finnish
audiences were served new operas much more sporadically, as revealed by
comparing the repertoires of national opera theatres.
Paradoxical as it may seem, despite national(istic) identity work performed
through operas – by institutions such as the Royal Swedish <strong>Opera</strong>
or the Royal Danish Theatre or the Finnish <strong>Opera</strong> – the opera performances
themselves often required singers, particularly prima donnas
and tenors, along with orchestral musicians, conductors, vocal coaches
(see Marianne Tråvén’s article) and other professionals from beyond a
nation’s borders. Furthermore, as mentioned above, operas performed in
the Nordic countries during the long nineteenth century originated to a
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