Aino Ackté
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Aino Ackté (23 July 1876, Helsinki – 8 August 1944, Vihti, original surname Achte) was a Finnish soprano. She was the first international star of the Finnish opera scene, and a groundbreaker for the domestic field.
Ackté's parents were mezzosoprano Emmy Achte and the conductor-composer Lorenz Nikolai Achte. Aino Ackté married doctor Heikki Renvall in 1901 and gave birth to a daughter (Glory Leppänen) the next year.
The young Ackté began studying opera under her mother's tutelage, until in 1894 she entered the Parisian conservatory and debuted there in the Grand Opera in 1897. Ackté's performance in Faust was a success, and she was signed on for six years in Paris as a result.
After Paris, Ackté signed on to the New York Metropolitan opera and then to the London Covent Garden. After completing her international career in 1913, she returned to Finland, where she gave a farewell performance in 1920. Her final public performance came at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1930.
In 1911, Ackté, Oskar Merikanto, and Edvard Fazer founded the Kotimainen Ooppera, a predecessor to the Finnish National Opera (renamed in 1914 Finnish Opera and then in 1956 the Finnish National Opera). She was to act as its director in 1938 and 1939.
After parting ways with the National Opera, Acté organized an international Savonlinna Opera Festival beginning on July 3, 1912; they were held 1912-14, 1916 and 1930.
Aino Ackté's coterie included among others Albert Edelfelt, who painted a famous full portrait of her in 1901.
She died of pancreatic cancer in Nummela Vihti in August 1944.
She has a park road named after her, near the Olavinlinna in Savonlinna and another street in Helsinki, Finland. Her old summerhouse, Villa Aino Ackté, located in Helsinki is being rented by the city for cultural activities and meetings.
[edit] References
- This article is based on a translation of the corresponding article from the Finnish Wikipedia, retrieved March 3 2005.
