An Introduction to the Company

The Royal Swedish Opera was founded in 1773 at the direction of King Gustaf III. A great lover of the arts--and an actor and playwright himself--King Gustaf wanted to promote the use of Swedish as the language of the upper classes, who generally spoke French. He decreed that all opera was to be sung in Swedish, and, after dismissing the Francophone opera company at the Bollhuset, he began bringing important European composers to create operas with Swedish poets.

As with many Operas, ballet played an important role, and shortly after the formation of the Royal Opera, French ballet master Louis Gallodier created an ensemble of thirty dancers. The first ballet to be staged was Opportunity Makes the Thief, and under Gustaf's patronage dramatic ballet grew in stature both at home and abroad.

Construction of a new stage began in 1775, and the Royal Opera House was officially opened on September 30, 1782. Designed by C.F.Adelcrantz, it was for the next century to be regarded as one of the most beautiful buildings in Stockholm and one of the most faultless theatres in the world. Sadly, scarcely ten years after the opera house was dedicated, King Gustaf III was assassinated at a masked ball; his would be immortalized by Giuseppe Verdi in his A Masked Ball.

Swedish ballet went through a more quiet period in the 1800's, and its fame was eclipsed by other European companies and styles. In 1913, the famous choreographer Michel Fokine arrived in Stockholm, and his productions of Les Sylphides and other important works revitalized the company. Among those who found inspiration in the renewed Swedish Ballet was Rolf de Mare, a wealthy Swede who in 1920 formed the Ballet Suedois in Paris. The avant-garde company attracted many of the Royal Swedish Ballet's principals, who left Stockholm for a chance to live and dance in the exhilarating atmosphere of Paris in the 1920's.