Other Links
Editorial Board
- Editor - Bill Kenny
- London Editor-Melanie Eskenazi
- Founder - Len Mullenger
Google Site Search
SEEN
AND HEARD INTERVIEW
“From
Wagner Swimmer to Opera Director” :
Göran Forsling talks to Birgitta
Svendén, due to take over the Royal Stockholm Opera in 2009 (GF)
During a coach ride from Bayreuth to the Franz-Josef-Strauss Airport
in Munich I was able to spend a good hour in the backseat with
Swedish Royal Court Singer Birgitta Svendén. The evening before we
had both attended a performance at the Festspielhaus of the
controversial production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,
directed by Katharina Wagner. The reactions of the audience were
divided. On the one hand there was heavy booing, on the other
delighted shouts of ‘bravo’ and intense stamping of feet. Birgitta
and I were unanimous in our appreciation of the staging: unorthodox
no doubt, rather rebellious but very clear in its message and with
large portions of humour. Some of the booing was probably not
directly related to the production, Birgitta said. There are still
aspects concerning the leadership of the festival and the Wagner
family’s former association with the Nazis that haven’t been fully
sorted out. Moreover there is a tendency that new productions that
are washouts end up as established favourites a few years later.
Birgitta should know, having spent thirteen seasons in the house on
the Green Hill.
She was hardly out of the University College of Opera when she was
invited to audition for the role of Flosshilde, one of the
Rhinemaidens in Das Rheingold. This was in the new Ring
cycle with Sir Georg Solti and Sir Peter Hall in 1983, and
besides the singing there was another prerequisite for being
accepted: could she swim? Wagner was not exactly Birgitta’s cup of
tea at the time, but she could swim and she knew one ‘song’ by
Wagner: Erda’s Warning. Solti liked what he heard but he already had
an Erda, so Flosshilde it was.
Why swim? Well, Sir Peter Hall had created a River Rhine on the
Festspielhaus stage in the shape of a water-filled basin or pool
with a large mirror in a 45 degrees angle above, showing the maidens
from a bird’s eye view. As for costumes there were none: the
rhinemaidens were to appear in the nude. For the curtain calls they
were however given nice red robes, which caused some disappointment
from the male part of the audience and another grumble was that one
of the maidens – Birgitta – was wearing a white bikini also in the
water. This wasn’t true but she had spent a lot of free time
swimming in ice-old water and sunbathing that summer and acquired a
healthy tan, which was in sharp contrast to those parts of the body
that were protected from the sun.
But let’s start from the beginning. Swimming in ice-cold water was
no big deal for Birgitta Svendén, having grown up in the
northernmost part of Sweden, close to the Arctic Circle. Music was
in important part of her childhood, her father playing the piano and
accordion in an amateur dance orchestra and her mother singing in
the local church choir. Birgitta was soon enrolled in a children’s
choir, she played the recorder, took piano lessons. Vuollerim is a
small place and what else was there to do? The cantor supported her
and she was soon able to stand in for her. When she came to
Stockholm for further studies she used to deputize for the organist
at Högalidskyrkan, earning some extra money to finance her studies.
She obtained diploma as a singing-teacher and later joined
Operastudio 67 and the University College of Opera.
It was while she was still studying there that she came to the
public’s notice. Students now and then got small parts at the Royal
Opera and Birgitta had already been a nun in a production of
Puccini’s Suor Angelica when she one day was summoned to the
principal, the great bass at the Royal Opera, Arne Tyrén. ‘What have
I done now?’ she thought when she stepped into his office, a bit
shaky. ‘The Royal Opera want you for Tintomara,’ he
announced. ‘How nice!’ she said. ‘Which role?’ ‘Tintomara,’ Tyrén
said. ‘Yes, I heard, but which role?’‘Tintomara,’ Tyrén repeated.
‘You are to sing the title role!’ With two years to go before her
exam this was certainly a sensation and a flying start to her
operatic career. This was in 1979, I saw this production and was
deeply impressed by this young singer, small of stature but with a
powerful deep mezzo-soprano, verging on contralto. She can be heard
in an aria from Tintomara on a Caprice record with excerpts
from Swedish 20th century operas.
Her first role as permanent member of the ensemble was Dorabella in
Così fan tutte, which is a high-lying part, and Birgitta was
a bit hesitant at first but she took up the gauntlet and then she
quickly assumed several leading parts. She came to the Royal Opera
at a time when there was a change of generations in the house. Those
singers who had been pillars of strength since the 1950s – the ‘Iron
Gang’ – went into retirement one by one and in the new ‘gang’
Birgitta Svendén soon became one of the strongest pillars. In 1986
she took part in a meeting between generations that attracted much
attention. It was in Hans Gefors’s opera Christina with a
libretto by Lars Forssell. Christina is the 17th century
Swedish queen, daughter of King Gustavus II Adolf. Her father fought
for the survival of Protestantism during the Thirty Years War and
fell in battle at Lützen in 1632. Christina abdicated, converted to
Catholicism and moved to Rome – something that stirred the minds of
the Swedish people. In Gefors’s opera Birgitta Svendén was the young
Christina while the old Christina was sung by one of the most
illustrious members of the ‘Iron Gang’ – Margareta Hallin. This is
one of the best Swedish operas of recent times, I was much taken by
it back in 1986 and a revival a few years ago – a rarity as far as
modern opera is concerned – showed that it has stood the test of
time.
Birgitta remained a member of the Royal Opera until 1994 but she
became increasingly in demand in the rest of the world. During her
thirteen seasons at Bayreuth she appeared in a total of 157
performances, was soon promoted from Flosshilde to Erda in the
Ring – a role she can be seen in on the Barenboim Ring
cycle on DVD – sang Waltraute in Götterdämmerung and
Magdalene in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, to mention a few
roles. But she also sang at the MET during ten seasons between 1986
and 1998: the Wagner roles of course, but also another Maddalena,
the sister of the murderer Sparafucile in Rigoletto, where
she had to seduce Luciano Pavarotti’s Duke of Mantua – quite a heavy
task, I presume. The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin
were other operas she frequently appeared in.
From 1995 she has worked on a freelance basis, having initially been
invited to join the ensemble at Staatsoper Unter den Linden in
Berlin under the aegis of Daniel Barenboim but Birgitta felt that
this would encroach on her freedom and eventually backed out.
Has she regretted all this
Wagner? Not for a second. Wagner is addictive. Birgitta doesn’t use
that expression but one can read between the lines. Favourite role?
Unnecessary question, I knew the answer: ‘The one I’m working on at
the moment’. But she soon settles for Wagner: Erda and Waltraute.
What about all the travelling that is part and parcel of a life as
freelance singer? ‘I have always wanted to travel. I am curious of
new places. My father also wanted to travel. He never got the
opportunity, but I have been privileged to be able to combine my two
passions: travels and music. Of course in the long run one’s
existence becomes rather restricted, there are limited opportunities
to have a normal social life and four or five years ago I felt that
I wanted to cut down on travelling. By an act of providence the
post as principal of the University College of Opera in Stockholm
became vacant, I applied and since 1 August 2005 I have a permanent
job after ten years of freelancing.’
Birgitta doesn’t teach herself, but she is deeply involved with the
development of each and everyone of the students. ‘It is important
to be straight and explicit,’ she says. ‘There is no point in
turning a blind eye to deficiencies. Studying to be an opera singer
is no feather-bed job. It’s hard labour and there are no shortcuts.
The purpose of the education is that the students should be able to
compete on the international market, where competition is hard as
nails.’ Job opportunities in Sweden are fairly limited, even though
the market has widened the last few years. Stockholm, Gothenburg and
Malmö have permanent ensembles but there is also Karlstad,
Norrlandsoperan in Umeå and Folkoperan in Stockholm. Add to this a
number of smaller companies that perform less regularly and also
sundry summer festivals. Many gifted Swedish singers have gained
their livelihood in Germany, where there have been opera houses in
practically every town of any importance, but there has been a cut
down even here.
The job at Operahögskolan – the Swedish name of it – doesn’t mean
that Birgitta has had to shelve her own career for good. Six to
eight weeks per year are still available for projects, which amounts
to one opera production each year. Throughout her career she has
also appeared on the concert platform, singing for instance the
Brahms and Verdi Requiems, Mahler – I remember a superb Das Lied
von der Erde at Berwaldhallen in Stockholm with Esa-Pekka
Salonen conducting in September 1991 – and with pianist Thomas
Schuback she has through the years built up a large repertoire of
songs and Lieder.
But next year Birgitta Svendén’s existence will change direction
once more, when she takes up the post as Director of the Royal Opera
in Stockholm. This is indeed a challenge but Birgitta looks
confident and focused. She has the great advantage, compared to most
candidates, that she knows the house from within since almost thirty
years. She is familiar with every nook and cranny of the building,
she knows the majority of the staff and she has that hard-to-define
sense of the spirit and atmosphere that is unique for every place of
work. And most important of all: there is enormous potential at the
Royal Opera.
‘Like most opera houses the Stockholm Opera has had its ups and
downs,’ she says. ‘About ten years ago it went through a bad patch
but at present the standard is on a very high level.’
Having covered every new production and several revivals during the
last four years I can unreservedly endorse that statement. The
crowning glory has undoubtedly been the Ring cycle that was
completed a year ago but I haven’t seen a weak performance and the
umpteenth revival of Folke Abenius’s 37-year-old Rosenkavalier
in April this year was as fresh as it was when I saw it in 1971.
The Royal Opera has always been a repertory theatre and Birgitta
Svendén sees no reason to change this. Block programming has its
advantages, not least to facilitate the engagement of guest singers,
but the Stockholm public have been used to the possibilities of
having a choice of works, not having to wait until the next work
comes up. A combination of established classics and largely unplayed
works, spiced with newly written operas is Birgitta’s recipe for
sensible programming and she is busy investigating items of
interest.
‘We haven’t been very good at French repertoire,’ she says. ‘Carmen,
Faust and Hoffmann of course, Werther some years
ago but there must be other pieces as well.’ I mention Dukas’s
Ariane et Barbe-Bleu and Birgitta makes a mental note. It’s some
time since there was a new Swedish opera but in December Sven-David
Sandström’s Batseba will be performed, ten years after his
previous opera Staden (The City). To attract an international
public the libretto is in English, and this is in line with Birgitta
Svendén’s intentions: to exchange productions with other opera
houses.
A central problem these days, not only for opera houses but for the
classical music world at large, is to attract new (read: young)
visitors. There is no simple solution to this, of course, but
Birgitta wants to wipe off the all too common opinion that opera is
upper-class snobbery, that it is incomprehensible to ‘ordinary’
people, that opera singers are strange creatures on a pedestal and
other misconceptions.
‘The house should be open to everyone,’ is her maxim, ‘and people
should be able to drop in after work for some good entertainment.
There is no need to search for hidden messages and deep philosophy
all the time. Of course this aspect should also be satisfied, but
there is no point in starting with heavyweights like the Ring.
Operas like La Bohème and La traviata deal with
ordinary people and feelings that are universal.’
Letting people meet the singers and see that they are no different
from other humans is another way of making opera more earthbound.
Question is: How do we get out with the message? How do we get
people to come and try? I mention the different age distribution at
the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, where there is a
surprisingly high amount of young visitors, teen-agers and even
younger children. We ponder a while over this fact and conclude that
there is a different cultural climate but also that if young people
get an early introduction to the world of opera there is a great
possibility they will continue also when they grow up. Education
from parents, education from music teachers, should be one way to
go.
Another potential category of visitors are music lovers in the
provinces, where there are no regular opera performances. I know
from experience that when there is the odd visit of a touring
company people flock in large numbers. What happened to the touring
activity that the Royal Opera pursued some decades ago? Birgitta has
no answer but supposes that it is a question of money, but this is
of course another aspect to consider. When the Stockholm Opera
closes for renovation touring might be one way of keeping the
company alive.
With all due deference to renovation, a new opera house is still
sorely needed. Stockholm has lagged behind the other Nordic
capitals. Helsinki got a new house in 1993, Copenhagen in 2005 and
the new Oslo opera opened this spring. There have been discussions
about a new house in Stockholm for quite some time but so far no
decisions have been made. While waiting for this Birgitta sees
subsidiary stages as a priority and new stage technique is also a
necessity to be able to keep up with the development elsewhere.
Whatever will happen it is going to be very interesting to follow
the development at the Royal Opera during the next few years.
Göran Forsling
Back to Top Cumulative Index Page