This is a mandatory final report from the project to the Research Council of Norway, written by project leader Randi Margrete Selvik in 2016. This is also found in the project archive at the web site of the Research Council of Norway, which also contains reports from rhe project, publications, dissemination activities etc.

Final report

The project members have included 3 professors from musicology, theatre and dance research, 1 Ph.D. candidate from each discipline, and 1 theatre scholar, all from the Faculty of Humanities, NTNU.

The primary project aim has been to produce new knowledge about basic changes in the understanding and practice of the performative arts of dance, theatre and music in Norway 1790-1850, when a transition from artistic dilettantism to professionalism took place. What were the conditions for the artists, what kind of self-understanding did they have, and how did they interpret their roles as dilettantes or professionals? How did venues develop to answer the needs of changing art forms, and how did repertoire reflect attitudes towards professionalization and artistic quality?

The arts have been investigated both separately and from an interdisciplinary perspective. Dance, theatre and music drama were often performed in the same venues, by the same people and in shared artistic productions. Comparisons with European traditions have been essential. An interdisciplinary approach has given results that would have been impossible if each discipline had applied its own perspectives and methods, which has often been the case in Norwegian and international research.

Analysis of theatrical stage technology has given unexpected results. The investigation of who operated the stage machinery pointed to a group of professional itinerant artists. A change of perspective became necessary to understand their activity both from a technical and artistic point of view. These artists were versatile performers of a repertoire belonging to a popular European culture. Knowledge of this international popular entertainment has been underdeveloped in Norwegian theatre research.

Three Ph.D. dissertations offer important research results. Fra grevens gård til Prinsens gate (2015) by Annabella Skagen is an investigation of theatre in aristocratic circles in Trondheim in the 1790s and the town bourgeoisie 1800-1814. Parts of the repertoire was analysed in relation to its historical and cultural context, and to how the theatre functioned in the two social groups. Neither the period, nor the repertoire or connection of the theatre with the political events of 1814 have been investigated before. The theatre is interpreted as an educational institution, a tool for developing identity, and an arena of a politically oriented culture.

“Den store Verdens Tone” by Cecilie L. M. Stensrud (under evaluation) is a musicological analysis of Singspiel in Norway 1800-1825. This is a neglected research area in Norwegian music history, being a “light” type of opera with an international repertoire performed by dilettantes in the dramatic societies. Selected works have been analysed in a Danish and European context. Special emphasis on Christiania has revealed bourgeois values and an aesthetics of sensibility as essential for social and cultural identity. Gender perspectives have been important.

Dans i Norge 1750-1830 by Elizabeth Svarstad (to be completed in 2017) is an analysis of 17 books of dance repertoire. Dance was an important social educational tool and was also included in the curriculum of the military academy in Christiania. Early Norwegian dance history has been little investigated, but Svarstad has found a rich repertoire, and a use of dance that corresponds with European traditions. Her competence as a dancer has been methodically important for the analysis of the material.

The project published the anthology Lidenskap eller levebrød in 2015. Two more are in preparation. Project members have contributed to these and other books. 3 conferences have been arranged, and many papers have been given at conferences in Norway and abroad. Archival work has revealed new sources and valuable material for future publications. Contacts with international scholars and networks have been established and developed, such as the Stockholm University “Performing Premodernity” interdisciplinary project on research and artistic experiments linked to Drottningholm Slottsteater. A visit in 2013 gave insight into how modern productions of 18th-century repertoire can be based on historical conventions and techniques. A seminar with Danish culture historians in 2014 on recent Danish research on the period around 1814 gave valuable input for the scholarly work of the project.

Members have participated in many popular public events: interviews by NRK and written media, discussion panels, lectures, and introductory speeches at concerts, dance and theatre performances. Important input was given to the historical performance at Trøndelag Teater in January 2016, marking the bicentenary of the old theatre stage. One project member has been engaged in artistic dance projects, and another has become curator at Ringve Music Museum. Both have given the project a wider, popular impact area.