Interior View of the Finnish Opera 1919

Magnus Enckell painted this pastel drawing of the Finnish Opera's interior at the beginning of the twentieth century, when Finland was transitioning from Russian Grand Duchy to independent nation. Opera houses, from their very inception, served as symbolic spaces for the consolidation of national identity. Enckell shows us not only the stage where that drama plays out, but also the boxes and rows where the audience performs its own role. The architectural space invites, even requires, specific behaviors, such as modes of dress and etiquette. The theater thus shapes the very experience of being Finnish. The fuzzy indistinctness of Enckell’s soft pastels encourages us to reflect on how identity itself may be a kind of performance. We can research how the concept of Finnishness was formed through language, folklore, and the arts, and we can read newspaper reports about the contemporary opera scene. The historian helps us to appreciate how art is embedded in social life.