Opera Career
Though she never learned to read notes, she had a great natural talent and could quickly learn her part in a song simply by having heard it once. Her voice was described as that of a nightingale, and when Jeanette Wässelius, successor of Caroline Halle-Müller, retired in 1820, Henriette replaced her as Sweden's first prima donna, in competition with Elisabeth Frösslind and Anna Sofia Sevelin. Her salary reflected her position. She was paid 1.600; as comparison, the male actor with the highest salary was paid 1.800, and the lowest salary for an actress was 200.
In her memoirs, Widerberg talks about the circumstances regarding the 1820 dismissal of Jeanette Wässelius that led to her own rise to the top. At the time of her dismissal, the celebrated Wässelia (as she was called) was only 36 and at the top of her ability; she was also widely recommended for her professional moral. There was no reason for her dismissal other than that she was involved in a conflict with the influential Edvard du Puy, actor, singer and master of the opera's chapel, a man Henriette describes as "as mean as he was beautiful". Despite that, Henriette Widerberg greatly benefited from the dismissal of Wässelia, as it made her the prima donna of the opera; she points out in her memoirs her opinion that Jeanette Wässelius had been treated unjustly, and that du Puy had abused his power.
Widerberg started with parts in light operettas, until her performance in La vestale by Spontini (in 1821) proved her capable of performing more demanding parts. She played Emilie in Målaren och modellerna (The painter and the models) by Méhul, Clara in Adolphe et Clara, ou Les deux prisonniers by Dalayrac, Cora in Cora och Alonzo by Johann Gottlieb Naumann, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Zerline in Fra Diavolo, Anna in Don Juan, the title part in La dame blanche by Boieldieu and Anna in Friskyttarna (The poachers) by Weber; Julia in Vestalerna (The Vestals), the title role in Armida by Rossini, and Amazily in Fernand Cortez by Spontini.
In her performance as Zerlina in Fra Diavolo, 17 May 1833, she became the first singer to do a scene of undressing on the stage of the opera. This shocked the press, which wrote "Now, a woman can do on stage what she could not do even in the most intimate circle of a decent company, and undress herself until her petticoat."
Read more about this topic: Henriette Widerberg
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