Anne Kauppala: Staging Anti-Semitism or "La Juive" in Finnish Opera (1925)
La Juive, an opera by the composer Fromental Halévy and the librettist Eugen Scribe had its first performance in 1835 during the liberal surge of the French July Monarchy. The lavish production in the Opéra de Paris with Adolphe Nourrit and Cornélie Falcon among the première cast, reached its hundredth performance in 1840. Before that, the opera had been translated into German, Danish, Lettish, and later Polish, Swedish, Italian and even Finnish translations were made for productions in various national operas. But by the end of 19th Century, opera’s success began to fade, and it has almost entirely disappeared from the concurrent opera repertoire like many other fruits of the once so famous French Grand Opera genre.
My presentation outlines briefly some early performances of La Juive from the perspective of its male principal Eléazar, but the main focus will be the production of La Juive in the Finnish Opera in 1925 as well as its societal motivation in the politically turbulent times. The central figure is the Finnish tenor Väinö Sola (1883–1961) who was responsible for staging, planning the sets, and the new Finnish translation besides creating the role of Eléazar.
Sola had seen La Juive in the Metropolitan Opera in 1920 and considered it in his memoirs as one of the best performances ever. Particularly Caruso in the role of Eléazar had made an unforgettable impact. However, Sola himself chose to create a very different Eléazar, not a pious elderly Jew but a Shylock-like disgusting character in line with his personal Anti-Semitism. A tentative performance analysis can be made on the basis of performance material in the Archive of the Finnish National Opera and Ballet (e.g. photographs, posters, score and libretto), Sola’s published memoirs (1951 and 1952), his personal archives housed in the National Library and National Archives of Finland and press material.
Anne Kauppala is Professor of Music Performance Research at the Sibelius Academy (University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland)
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