Veneen luominen

Veneen luominen ("The Building of the Boat") was composed by Jean Sibelius. It is an opera inspired by Wagner but the work was never finished as Sibelius became disenchanted with Wagner's compositional techniques.

History

Sibelius was of the generation of composers who modeled their work on late 19th century composition practices. Like others, he had a great appreciation of Wagner. Sibelius thought of himself as a composer of opera and that operas would be the focus of his career. He systematically studied the scores of Wagner's operas "Tannhäuser", "Lohengrin", and "Die Walküre". He also attended a performance of "Parsifal" and was greatly affected.

Sibelius then began work on an opera entitled Veneen luominen (The Building of the Boat). Shortly thereafter, he enthusiasum for wagner plummeted and he forcefully rejected Wagner's techniques of composition, feeling they were too mechanical and stilted.

As he had lost interest in the composition of opera, the musical material from the incomplete Veneen luominen eventually became the Lemminkäinen Suite (1893).

External links

* [http://www.sibelius.fi/english/index.htm Jean Sibelius – the website] (English
* [http://www.abo.fi/fak/hf/musik/index.php Jean Sibelius Museum]
* [http://www.helsinki.fi/kasv/nokol/sibelius.html Jean Sibelius link collection]