Representative performances, political propaganda, and the question of financing

Abstract

In ‘Representative performances, political propaganda and the question of financing: The Royal Opera in Sweden around 1800’, Karin Hallgren discusses how the opera in Stockholm adapted to different changes. Repertory and performances interacted with economic conditions, and organisation and financing were crucial when the opera modified its repertory to various political needs. The Royal Swedish opera was founded by Gustav III in 1773 as a conventional court opera. A combination of exclusive and public performances was common from the start. It flourished in the 1780s. Only ‘high’ operas were performed. Opera-comique became popular in Stockholm but was only allowed at a private theatre. After Gustav III’s assassination in 1792, this theatre was taken over by the new king and allowed to play at the royal opera after 1800, which had consequences for the distinction between high and low repertory. The Napoleonic wars led to a shut-down, but the opera was restored with a new king in 1809. Financing was a persistent issue, also with the next king. When needing a paying bourgeois public, the repertory changed from representative court entertainment to lighter operas-comiques. Hallgren also compares the transition from a royal to a bourgeois institution with other European opera houses.