Sibelius: The maiden in the tower

Opera no

Sibelius: the Maiden in the Tower

Soloists

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

Neeme Järvi

I knew that Sibelius had written an early opera but I assumed that it was a student work. In fact he was almost 30 when he wrote it: he had already written Kullervo and En Saga, and the first symphony was only a couple of years away. So I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was when the work started in an unmistakably Sibelian idiom. I don’t think that anybody else could have written this. 

The rest of the opera was not quite as distinctive but still highly enjoyable  - the choral music in particular was a highlight. It is all over in about 30 mins. It was only performed three times and then forgotten until it was revived in the 1980s. I think that Sibelius realised that his real metier was symphonic music and he never attempted opera again. In his biography of the composer Erik Tawaststjerna says of the libretto ‘ it was the operatic albatross that Sibelius chose to wear round his neck’ but remarks that that’ considering that it is a first attempt it has moments of unmistakable effectiveness’. The opera would be an interesting curiosity to revive occasionally but as I have commented before there is no real place for short operas in today’s operatic practice.