Autograph letter signed "Aino Ackté-Renval".
Small 8vo. 3½ pp. on bifolium.
$388.00
To a domestic worker, giving instructions to prepare the house for a visit of her mother, the mezzo-soprano Emmy Achté, and informing her that a second person woould not accompany her mother to Paris after all: "Madame, je regrette infiniment d’être obligée de vous donner contre-ordre pour la location des chambres, ma mère pouvant trouver logis dans la maison que nous habitons et la dame, qui devait l'accompagner, ne venant pas du tout à Paris. Ce sera peut-être pour une autre fait!".
Aino Ackté had her debut at the Paris Opera in Gounod's "Faust" in 1897 and was immediately signed on for six years. From 1904 to 1906 she was engaged at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In 1907 and 1910 Ackté sang the title role in the local premieres of Richard Strauss's "Salome" in Leipzig and London. The 1910 premiere in London's Covent Garden was an enormous success; Strauss proclaimed Ackté the "one and only Salome" (Pajamo, p. 219). In 1911, Ackté was among the founders of the Kotimainen Ooppera in Helsinki, today's Finnish National Opera, and served as its director in 1938/39. Jean Sibelius dedicated his tone poem "Luonnotar" to Ackté, which she premiered on 10 September 1913 at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester, England. In 1914, Ackté permanently returned to Finland, where she gave her farewell performance in 1920.
With collector's note in pencil. Well preserved.
R. Pajamo, Ihminen musiikin Valtakentässä: Juhlakirja Professori Timo Mäkiselle (Jyväskylä, 1979).