Aïno Ackté and Paris
Aïno Ackté et Paris
Abstract
This symposium, devoted to “Aïno Ackté and Paris” on the 150th anniversary in 2026 of this great artist’s birth, will explore the many facets of her life and career, while focusing in particular on the part she played in the opera world in Paris.
Announcement
Argument
Aïno Ackté (1876-1944) left her native Helsinki at the age of eighteen to study, like her mother before her, at the Paris Conservatoire. She entered the classes of Edmond Duvernoy (singing) in 1894 and that of Alfred Giraudet (opera) in 1895, and in 1987 was awarded a premier prix for opera that set the course for her Paris career. Engaged straight away by the Paris Opéra, she made a remarkable debut in October 1897 as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust, delighting the audience not only with her excellent vocal qualities, but also with her impressive stage presence. One critic wrote: “This attractive and refined young lady, distinctive and exquisite of countenance and demeanour, did not merely sing the part of Marguerite; she expressed it with astonishing versatility and talent.” (Adrien Laroque, Acteurs et actrices de Paris, July 1899.)
She continued until 1904 to reap success after success in many roles – Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Elsa (Lohengrin), Elisabeth (Tannhäuser), to name but a few – not only at the Paris Opéra, but also at the Opéra-Comique, with critics and audience alike remaining constant in their admiration for her distinctive vocal timbre, perceived as highly “exotic” and often compared with that of her elder, the Swedish soprano Christine Nilsson (1843-1921).
Aïno Ackté maintained a special bond with Paris that she was unable to establish elsewhere, despite an international career that took her as far as the United States. Her teacher and mentor Edmond Duvernoy wrote to her: “Paris is the only place for true artists, and now you see how much it can be missed.”
But while leading an artistic career that was markedly Francophile, Aïno Ackté was also an ambassadress for Finnish culture at a time when her country was under Russian domination. In 1899 Tsar Nicholas II abrogated Finland’s autonomy within the Russian Empire. The following year, with a programme of Finnish music, she represented her country at the 1900 Paris World Fair.
Back to her homeland, she co-founded in 1911 the Domestic Opera (Kotimainen Ooppera), which later became the Finnish Opera and today’s Finnish National Opera. In 1938-39, she held the position of general director of the National Opera. In 1912 she had also founded the Savonlinna Opera Festival. She spent the years 1926-28 in Paris, where she gave private lessons.
This symposium, devoted to “Aïno Ackté and Paris” on the 150th anniversary in 2026 of this great artist’s birth, will explore the many facets of her life and career, while focusing in particular on the part she played in the opera world in Paris.
Themes that may be addressed, include:
- The artist as seen through the eyes of the press
- Aïno Ackté and vocality
- Aïno Ackté and her operatic roles
- Opera training at the Paris Conservatoire in the late nineteenth century
- Aïno Ackté and musical exoticism on the opera stage in Paris
- Music and geopolitics in the context of the 1900 Exposition Universelle
- Cantatrices and their careers at the Paris Opéra at the time of Aïno Ackté
- Aïno Ackté’s personal circles in Paris
- The male view of an opera singer from the North
- Aïno Ackté, star of the Paris Opéra, as seen from abroad
- Emmy Achté, Aïno Ackté, Irma Tervani: three generations of Finnish opera singers in Paris
- Aïno Ackté as a teacher in Paris
This list is not restrictive.
Symposium languages: French / English
In addition to the sources preserved in Paris (notably the French national library BnF, Département de la Musique – Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra and Arts du Spectacle), the National Library of Finland (Finnish: Kansalliskirjasto) holds a large part of the Aïno Ackté archives, including her abundant correspondence with many French personalities and a vast collection of press cuttings relating to her career (see inventory online). Aïno Ackté also wrote two volumes of memoirs (vol. 1 in Finnish and Swedish; vol. 2 in Finnish). The Sibelius Academy library holds scores that once belonged to her. These sources are currently being digitised as part of the preparations for this symposium. The letters addressed to her in French can be made available to persons who have presented a reasoned request and have been selected to take part in the symposium.
Submission guidelines
Proposals for papers should be sent to Helena Tyrväinen, Étienne Jardin and Thomas Vernet:
helena.tyrvainen@helsinki.fi, t.vernet@royaumont.com, ej@bru-zane.com,
before 1st December 2025
Proposals should include the following: name and institutional affiliation of the author; bio and bibliography of the author (maximum 150 words); title, topic and abstract of the paper (approximately 300 words).
In order to allow time for discussion of the papers, each participant will have a maximum of 30 minutes to deliver her/his paper.
Keynotes
- Helena Tyrväinen, University of Helsinki
- Louis Clerc, Université de Turku
Scientific comitee
- Mathias Auclair (BnF)
- Jean-Christophe Branger (Université Lyon II)
- Rémy Campos (CNSMDP)
- Etienne Jardin (Palazzetto Bru Zane)
- Hervé Lacombe (IUF, Université de Rennes II)
- Karine Le Bail (CNRS, EHESS)
- Cécile Reynaud (EPHE)
- Helena Tyrväinen (Université d’Helsinki)
- Thomas VERNET (Fondation Royaumont)
Bibliography
Aino Ackté, Muistojeni kirja 1, Helsinki : Otava, 1925.
Aino Ackté, Minnen och upplevelser, Helsingfors : Söderström, 1925.
Aino Ackté, Taiteeni taipaleelta, Helsinki : Otava, 1935.
Mathias Auclair, André Tubeuf & Charles Duprat (dir.), Les Tragédiennes de l’Opéra de Rose Caron à Fanny Heldy, le feu sacré des déesses du Palais Garnier, 1875–1939, Paris : Albin Michel, [2011].
Mathias Auclair, L’Opéra de Paris 350 ans d’histoire, Montreuil : Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2019.
Jean-Christophe Branger, Jules Massenet, Paris : Fayard, 2024.
Ulla-Britta Broman-Kananen, « Emmy Achté’s Tactics for the Concours at the Paris Conservatoire », in Musikleben des 19. Jahrhunderts im nördlichen Europa. Strukturen und Prozesse/19th-Century Musical Life in Northern Europe. Structures and Processes, eds. Kristel Pappel, Toomas Siitan & Anu Sõõro, Hildesheim, Zürich, New York : Olms, 2010.
Rémy Campos et Aurélien Poidevin, La Scène lyrique autour de 1900, Paris : L’œil d’or, 2011.
Louis Clerc, « A feeling for justice. French reactions to the ‘Finnish cause’ between 1890 and 1917. » Journal of Baltic Studies (2007) 38 no 2, p. 235-254.
Pierre-Barthélemy Gheusi, Midi. Silhouettes, Paris : Flammarion, 1900.
Karen Henson, Opera Acts. Singers and Performance in the Late Nineteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Steven Huebner, « La princesse paysanne du Midi », in Music, Theater and Cultural Transfer: Paris, 1830–1914, eds Annegret Fauser & Mark Everist, Chicago, IL, & London : University of Chicago Press, 2009, 361–78.
Hervé Lacombe (dir.), Histoire de l’opéra français. De la Belle Époque au monde global, Paris : Fayard, 2022.
Michel Noiray et Solveig Serre (dir.), Le répertoire de l’Opéra de Paris, 1671–2009, Paris : École de Chartes, 2010.
Frédérique Patureau, Le Palais Garnier dans la société parisienne, 1875–1914, Liège : Mardaga, 1991.
Kristina Ranki, Les deux amours. La francophilie finlandaise 1880–1914, vol. 1. Paris : L’Harmattan, 2023.
Kristina Ranki, La patrie et la France. La francophilie finlandaise 1880–1914, vol. 2, Paris : L’Harmattan, 2023.
Kaarina Reenkola, « Tahdon jotain maani puolesta tehdä.» Heikki Renvall aatteiden ja ilmiöiden välittäjänä 1900-luvun alun Euroopassa [« ‘Je souhaite pour mon pays faire quelque chose ’. Heikki Renvall [premier mari d’Aïno Ackté], transmetteur de pensées et de phénomènes dans l’Europe du début du XXe siècle], thèse de doctorat en Histoire, Université de Helsinki, 2015.
Anne Sivuoja-Kauppala, « Salome’s Slow Dance with Lord Chamberlain », in Clair Rowden (dir.), Performing Salome, Revealing Stories, Farnham : Ashgate, 2013.
Helena Tyrväinen (dir.), Des notes sur la neige. Les relations musicales entre la France et les pays du Nord (Danemark, Estonie, Finlande, Norvège, Suède), 1900-1939, Peter Lang, 2024.
Helena Tyrväinen, « Pariisin oopperan tähtisopraano Aino Ackté kulttuurisillan rakentajana [Aïno Ackté, étoile soprano de l’Opéra de Paris et créatrice de liens culturels] », in Outi Merisalo & Sini Sovijärvi (dir.), Ranska Helsingissä vuodesta 1890 [La France à Helsinki depuis 1890], éds., Rome : Helsingin ranskalais-suomalainen yhdistys [Cercle franco-finlandais de Helsinki], 2023, p. 351–376, en ligne : https://helda.helsinki.fi/items/d974bf7f-bdca-4dc1-b58a-503bf85efb97
Helena Tyrväinen, « ‘Ma chère petite Aïno.’: The Role of a Paris Conservatoire Singing Professor as Architect of an Opera Singer’s Career, as Seen through Letters of Edmond Duvernoy and Aïno Ackté », in Tyrväinen, H & Kniazeva , J (dir.), New Documents on the History of Art History: Epistolary Documents: Current Research and Perspectives, vol. 3, Saint Pétersbourg : Russian Institute of Art History & Cultural Ministry of the Russian Federation, 2021, p. 226–285, en ligne : https://helda.helsinki.fi/items/fadfc3da-dddb-421b-a4d1-31e8cd9f47a9
Places
- Bibliothèque Musicale La Grange-Fleuret, 11bis Rue de Vézelay
Paris, France (75008)
Event attendance modalities
Full on-site event
Keywords
- Opéra, Paris, cantatrice, Finlande
Contact(s)
- Etienne Jardin
courriel : ej [at] bru-zane [dot] com - Thomas Vernet
courriel : t [dot] vernet [at] royaumont [dot] com - Helena Tyrväinen
courriel : helena [dot] tyrvainen [at] helsinki [dot] fi
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Aïno Ackté and Paris », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Thursday, July 31, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/14g92
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