Let’s Finally Drop the Rhetoric of »forgotten« Women Composers

It should be obvious: Yes, women compose opera. Fantastic opera. And they have done so throughout the entire 400-year history of the art form. If this still surprises anyone, it is likely because older opera composed by women is almost never performed in this country.

Are we truly ready for that divorce?

Leafing through the Danish Composers’ Society’s recent Repertoire Statistics for the 22/23 and 23/24 seasons, one chart in particular leaps off the page: the gender distribution in opera composed before 1994. It shows that a microscopic 0.3% of the total opera output – 982 hours and 12 minutes – was composed by a woman. Just over three hours of music in total – about the same as half a Wagner premiere.

Clearly, that is not acceptable. But after a full day at Takkelloftet attending the international conference and concert Her Perspective: The Forgotten History of Opera, organised by Den Andre Operan in collaboration with the Royal Danish Theatre and Aalto Musiktheater, I realised that changing these statistics is anything but simple. A true reckoning with the gender imbalance requires a fundamental break with the entrenched canon to which the opera world clings. And are we truly ready for that divorce?

Exposure that blinds

If one were to identify a shared goal among everyone involved in the conference, it would be exposure. The musicologists’ archaeological digs in the archives, the publishers’ careful work making scores available, the opera houses’ eager promotion, and the directors’ and performers’ deep artistic engagement. Each, in their own way, works tirelessly – almost feverishly – to spread awareness of women opera composers.

Out with the old lecture, in with a new canon purged of male composers

The coffee had barely been poured before Bente Rolandsdotter and Hanna Fritzon from Den Andre Operan – a Swedish production company devoted exclusively to opera by women – whisked us through a chronological curriculum of female opera composers, from Italy’s Francesca Caccini to Finland’s Kaija Saariaho. Their presentation instantly set a revisionist tone: out with the old lecture, in with a new canon purged of male composers.

But this pointed historiographic model also hinted early at the challenges inherent in working with women opera composers of the past. Which story serves us best? The story of normalisation – where the music speaks for itself and gender categories ultimately become irrelevant? Or the story of exceptionalism – where marginalised women, against all odds, manage the Herculean task of composing opera, only to be forgotten by posterity?

When the dominance of the canon obstructs change

This tension between the ordinary and the extraordinary ran like two opposing currents through the conference’s first day, packed with panels, interviews and lectures. For instance, Aalto Musiktheater’s artistic director Dr. Erle Fahrholz advocated for de-dramatization: that historical women composers should appear in season programmes as a standard feature, not as a novelty. Dramaturg Patricia Knebel echoed this approach, urging patience and expressing the wish »to let the works speak for themselves.«

I know an opera-loving friend who routinely skips productions labelled »overlooked« or »forgotten«

On the other hand was Royal Danish Opera director Elisabeth Linton’s more sensation-oriented rhetoric, rooted in outsider narratives where »the winners write history« and the losers – the women – are forgotten. Even the typically sober music historian Thomas Husted Kirkegaard, who researches cultural memory and women composers, could not resist presenting his »sensational discovery« – a complete opera by the composer Nicoline Leth – on a PowerPoint slide illustrated with a slow-motion, dramatically zooming image of the »hidden treasure«: the score.

It was both frustrating and inspiring to feel the archival fever and revolutionary pulse driving this field forward at breakneck speed. But above all, I sat with the sense that a significant part of the promotion and research communication risks undermining the groundbreaking work being done. The fight against gender imbalance may end up as a drop in the ocean – a classic »add woman and stir« symptom, as many feminist historians warn – unless it simultaneously challenges the canon-worship that saturates opera history. We cannot continue the canon logic of composers being either »in« or »out«.

As literary historian and journalist Sarah Alfort wrote in an essay in Weekendavisen, the problem is that »every time we describe artists, writers and musicians as ‘forgotten women’, we also keep them in that category.« We give these composers a label that risks reproducing their marginalisation rather than correcting it. I know an opera-loving friend who routinely skips productions labelled »overlooked« or »forgotten«. As he says: There must be a reason. And he’s surely not the only one. I doubt the forgetfulness-brand attracts audiences; on the contrary, it fosters a built-in scepticism that helps no one.

The astronomically high ticket price of 915 kroner hardly supported the goal of accessibility. It was sad to see Takkelloftet less than half full, occupied mainly by the usual crowd of academics and practising artists

And speaking of audiences: the astronomically high ticket price of 915 kroner hardly supported the goal of accessibility. It was sad to see Takkelloftet less than half full, occupied mainly by the usual crowd of academics and practising artists. Why not fill the room by making it free for students, for instance?

A way out of the closed circuit

»It’s not a question of quality« – one of the key points in Thomas Husted Kirkegaard’s presentation. And the evening’s concert programme proved him right: we began with the dreamy mal du siècle of concert excerpts from Louise Bertin’s Fausto, followed by the more Viking-tinged heroism of Elfrida Andrée’s Fritiof’s Saga, and finally Tekla Griebel Wandall’s armour-clad tenderness in King Hroar’s Skalds.

If we want older operas by women to become living culture, we must approach them as active, dynamic entities

The main event came after the break: Mazepa Revisited, performed by Den Andra Operan. The starting point was Marie Clémence de Grandval’s opera about the Cossack Ivan Mazepa – a national hero in Ukraine, but depicted as a traitor in Russia. With a fiery chamber ensemble and two young talents – baritone David Risberg and soprano Emilia Utter – the production revitalised the passionate, melodic opera by allowing other versions of the Mazepa legend to pierce Grandval’s narrative through voice-over and video projections. A refreshing intervention that made the opera speak directly to contemporary battles over historical truth. In my view, this is exactly the right approach: Grandval’s opera was not treated as a rare, overlooked gem deserving of faithful restoration, but was boldly overwritten and created anew.

I believe the way forward is to focus on the potential of works like Grandval’s Mazepa – and actively engage with those potentials in the communication as well – instead of branding them as »forgotten«. If we want older operas by women to become living culture, we must approach them as active, dynamic entities. If not, we risk settling for the low-hanging fruit in a movement that otherwise holds real potential to shake up entrenched operatic practice.

Perhaps we can manage a few seasons without Puccini

This requires resisting the impulse to simply insert a few women into the cultural canon – or to create a separate canon consisting only of women. The reckoning must be part of a broader dismantling of the canon mentality that has turned opera history into a closed circuit for decades. And yes – a few sacred cows will have to be swallowed along the way. Perhaps we can manage a few seasons without Puccini.

But somewhere, we must begin. If the goal is to give older works by women composers more stage time, then Her Perspective: The Forgotten History of Opera must be considered a success. With a total of four hours of music across two concert evenings, the bleak statistics of past seasons have already improved.

The international conference Her Perspective: The Forgotten History of Opera took place at the Royal Danish Theatre on 27–28 November and was organised by Den Andre Operan, the Royal Danish Theatre, and Aalto Musiktheater.

The Danish Composers’ Society recently launched new repertoire statistics for classical and contemporary music in Denmark.

English translation: Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek