Jungfrun i tornet JS 101, is the only completed opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 by the Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 composer Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...

. Its Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

 libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 is by Rafael Hertzberg. It was first performed in a concert version during a fund-raising evening for the Helsinki Philharmonic Society on 7 November 1896. It received three further performances before Sibelius withdrew it, claiming he wanted to revise the score. He never did and the opera remained unheard until it was broadcast on Finnish radio in 1981. The work's lack of success has been blamed on the weakness of the libretto, described by Robert Layton

Robert Layton

Robert Edward John "Bob" Layton, PC was a Canadian politician.-Early career:Robert Layton was born in Montreal, the son of Norah Lestelle and former Quebec cabinet minister Gilbert Layton. He graduated from McGill University in 1947...

 as "a lifeless concoction" (Viking p.983). Some of the music shows the influence of Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

. The opera is in a single act, divided into eight scenes, and lasts about 35-40 minutes.

Roles

Cast	Voice type	Premiere cast
Maiden	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Bailiff	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
Lover	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
Chatelaine	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Emmy Achté

Synopsis

The story is set in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. After the Maiden rejects the advances of the Bailiff, he kidnaps her and imprisons her in his castle. She manages to tell the Lover of her predicament and he is preparing to fight a duel to free her when the Chatelaine arrives and arrests the Bailiff. The Maiden and the Lover are reunited and the opera ends with general rejoicing.

Recordings

• The Maiden in the Tower Mari-Ann Haeggander, Jorma Hynninen, Erland Hagegard, Tone Kruse, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Neeme Järvi
  Neeme Järvi
  Neeme Järvi is an Estonian-born conductor.-Early life:Järvi studied music first in Tallinn, and later in Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky, and Nikolai Rabinovich, among others...
  
    (Bis, 1985)

• The Maiden in the Tower Garry Magee, Lilli Paasikivi, Solveig Kringelborn, Lars-Erik Jonsson, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Järvi
  Paavo Järvi
  Paavo Järvi is an Estonian-American conductor, and current Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris.Järvi was born in Tallinn, Estonia, to conductor Neeme Järvi and Liilia Järvi. His siblings, Kristjan Järvi and Maarika Järvi, are also musicians...
  
  (Virgin, 2002)

Sources

• Viking Opera Guide ed. Holden (1993)
• Andrew Barnett Sibelius (Yale University Press, 2007) pp.108-109
• Penguin Guide to Opera on Compact Discs (1993)