Aino Ackté

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Aino Ackté
File:AAckté 1900s (cropped).jpg
Aino Ackté (c. 1900)
Born Aino Achte
(1876-04-23)23 April 1876
Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire (now Finland)
Died Error: Need valid death date (first date): year, month, day
Nummela, Finland
Nationality Finnish
Occupation Opera singer

Aino Ackté (originally Achte; 24 April 1876 – 8 August 1944) was a Finnish soprano. She was the first international star of the Finnish opera scene after Alma Fohström, and a groundbreaker for the domestic field.[1][2][3][4][5]

Biography

File:Aino Ackte by Edelfelt.jpeg
Albert Edelfelt's portrait of Ackté from 1901

Ackté was born in Helsinki. Her parents were mezzo-soprano Emmy Achté (née Strömer)[6] and the conductor-composer Lorenz Nikolai Achté.

The young Ackté studied singing under her mother's tutelage until 1894 when she entered the Paris Conservatory, studying under Edmond Duvernoy and Alfred Girodet. Her debut at the Paris Opera was in 1897 in Faust[7] and she was signed on for six years as a result. Ackté's coterie included among others Albert Edelfelt, who painted a famous full portrait of her in 1901.[8]

File:Albert Edelfelt - Aino Ackté as Alcestis on the Banks of the Styx, Role Portrait.jpg
Another portrait by Edelfelt, 1902

Aino Ackté married a lawyer, Heikki Renvall, in 1901 and gave birth to a daughter, Glory, the same year. She officially adopted the surname Ackté-Renvall.[9] Their son, Mies Reenkola, was born in 1908.[10][2]

In 1904 Ackté was engaged by the New York Metropolitan Opera where she remained until 1906. She performed the title role of Richard Strauss's Salome at its local premieres in Leipzig (1907) and London (1910).[11] The Covent Garden premiere was an enormous success and Strauss himself proclaimed Ackté the "one and only Salome".[12] Ackté considered the London performances her real breakthrough.

In 1911, Ackté, Oskar Merikanto, and Edvard Fazer founded the Kotimainen Ooppera (renamed in 1914 Finnish Opera, and then in 1956 the Finnish National Opera). She was to act as its director in 1938–1939.[13]

After parting ways with the National Opera, Ackté organized an international Savonlinna Opera Festival beginning on 3 July 1912;[14] it was held 1912–1914, 1916 and 1930.

Jean Sibelius dedicated his tone poem Luonnotar to Ackté and she premiered the work on 10 September 1913 at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester, England.[15] She also sang in the first performance of Luonnotar in Finland, in January 1914.

Ackté ended her international travels in 1914 and returned to Finland, where she gave her farewell performance in 1920. She married Bruno Jalander, the governor of Uusimaa, in 1919, changing her name to Ackté-Jalander.[2]

Her final public performances took place at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1930. She provided the libretto for Juha, and opera that received two treatments: the first by Aarre Merikanto (1922) and the second by Leevi Madetoja (1934). She died of pancreatic cancer in Nummela, Vihti in August 1944.

Legacy

File:Aino Acktén huvila.jpg
Villa Aino Ackté in Helsinki
File:Aino-Ackte-1976.jpg
1976 Finnish postage stamp with Edelfelt's painting of her

She has a park road named after her, near the Olavinlinna in Savonlinna and another street in Helsinki, Finland. Her old summerhouse, Villa Aino Ackté (fi), located in Helsinki is being rented by the city for cultural activities and meetings.[2]

Ackté is theorized to have most likely been the original model for the opera diva character Bianca Castafiore in comics books of "Adventures of Tintin" by Belgian Hergé.[16]

Gallery

In Wagner's Tannhäuser, 1899
In Wagner's Tannhäuser, 1899 
As Alcestis at Paris Opera in 1900
As Alcestis at Paris Opera in 1900 
[[Photograph of Aino Ackté in her Tosca outfit.jpg|center|border|180x150px|alt=|In her outfit for Tosca, c. 1900]]
In her outfit for Tosca, c. 1900 
[[Léopold-Émile Reutlinger - Set of photographs of Aino Ackté in Paris 1901.jpg|center|border|180x150px|alt=|Photographed by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger in 1901]]
Photographed by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger in 1901 
As Elsa in Lohengrin, 1903
As Elsa in Lohengrin, 1903 
As Tosca in 1905
As Tosca in 1905 
As Salome, 1911
As Salome, 1911 
Ackté as Elsa, 1917
Ackté as Elsa, 1917 
Later in life in 1938
Later in life in 1938 

References

  • Severi Nygård: Tintti Suomessa (Tintin in Finland), Helsingin Sanomat, Kuukausiliite, October 2008.

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External links

Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons

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  16. ↑ Tett, Stuart (2016). Rea-Life Inspiration Behind TinTin's Adventures in King Ottokar's Sceptre. p. 15. Egmont UK Ltd.
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