Gustav III's 'total theatre'
Carousel divertissements and hastiludes
The Gustavian hastiludes and carousels were unique theatrical phenomena. Characterised by clear artistic intention, they constituted a renewal of a dying genre. Gustav III's revival of these splendid events was guided by dreams, passions and obsession.
Between 1776 and 1785, a succession of carousels was staged at the various royal retreats and in the capital. These Gustavian outdoor spectacles undergo a perceptible evolution, becoming more and more complicated and extravagant as time went on. The hastiludes were "theatricalised", changing from purely sporting exercises to dramatic Gesamtkunst with fantastic scenarios, incorporating psychological plots and a total aesthetic experience. The carousels became recurrent Gustavian carnivals in jest and in earnest. The eternal radiance ofthe days of King Gustav is reflected by the sheen of armour, the light of torches and the fire-spouting antics of pyrotechnical dragons.
Gustav III's infatuation with things medieval and "Gothic" and his ardent love of chivalry are regarded as the basic motives underlying these provocatively expensive chivalrous games. The feudal display also conceals political ambitions and personal desires. The importance of the military games as training and strategy was challenged at the very first carousels by the officers and nobles who had been ordered to attend them, and also by more occasional knights of elevated rank.
Gustav III's thoughts concering bravery, honour and spiritual ardour and advancement touched on other dimensions. It is significant that most of the theatrical carousels are based on the theme of liberation deliverance and liberty.
The setting for the "total aesthetic experience" in connection with outdoor diversions in the grounds of Drottningholm, Ulriksdal or Gripsholm was and remains quite favourable. The "English park" with its artificial disorder makes an unrivaled stage set, by both day and night.
Gustav III was familiar with all the potentialities of outdoor theaters. Chinoiseries in a neatly trimmed leafy theatre, a fête galant with an outdoor supper, illuminations and masquerades à la Watteau, a Vauxhall with enchanting music and doting butterflies all these events and occurrences became vital elements of the total outdoor experience which Gustav III was aiming for in his hastiludes.
The Gustavian concept of the carousel also included elements of mystique and freemansony. Peculiar romantic theatrical games were mingled with esoteric ceremonical and the rigid etiquette of the Swedish court.
The first tournaments, at Ekolsund in 1776 and in Adolf Fredriks Torg in 1777, were magnificent lavishly arrayed passages of arms in the spirit of medieval chivalry, with the actual challenge, pageant and combat forming the main attraction. The theatrical element was provided by the costumes. The participants wore Burgundian dress of the same cut as, for example, in the opera Arsène and, later, in Gustav III's own historical dramas.
A new hastilude already took place in November 1777, this time at Gripsholm, with the Vasa fortress providing an authentic backcloth. Gustav III had chosen the romance of Amadis of Gaul as his literary model. The knights appeared in theatrical costumes and were given "foreign names taken from the history". The stage design was relatively simple and improvised a pilot study for later productions.
With the carousels entitled La Fête Diane and La Prise de la Roche Galtare, which took place in the grounds of Drottningholm in 1778 and 1779 respectively, Gustav III made the hastiludes part of a consistently thought-out theatrical framework. The story and music became increasingly important. The scenario also included allegorical performances and technical "machinery".
One of the many diarists at court records that "The King has been meditating a carousel divertissement". The royal dramatist and director appears to have been in direct control of everything. All the facilities and forces of the theatre were utilised. For the 1779 carousel, scenery painters and theatre carpenters were made to build a partly three-dimensional Gothic castle at the foot of Flora's Hill, near the Chinese Pavilion. Pyrotechnicians rigged up smoke cartridges and Bengal firers in artificial dragons. The poet J.G. Oxenstierna wrote lines dictated by the King. Costumes were made and borrowed.
Music aquired ever-greater prominence. Drum roles and trumpet calls included the field exercises were supplemented by purely incidental music. Musicians were engaged to perform noisy martial music for marches to and from the lists and during the course. This music was played on trumpets, drums, oboes and various other woodwind instruments. The programme also included "soft and pleasing" music for the accompaniment of singers, dancers and actors. That music was played on "violins, flutes, fifes and suchlike".
The elaborate Gustavian carousels demanded progressively longer preparations and, just as in the theatre, time-consuming rehearsals were needed in order to master the techniques, learn the words and get everything running smoothly. Then there were endless rehearsals and exercises with horses and weapons.
Many people complained. Several diarists at the court of King Gustav were of two minds about the value of these carousels. The King seems to have been more or less alone in his enduring, fanatical devotion to these occasions. "This fête is comparable to a Spanish dish called olla, in which all vegetables and all meat dishes are mingled together. There are few people possessed of such a fiery imagination as to be able to compose such a thing and carry it off with all the gravity which the most earnest matter would require." (From the diary of Axel von Fersen, 30th August 1779.)
The carousel The Delivery of Angelica, planned for the summer of 1782 at Drottningholm, had to be cancelled due to the death of the Queen Dowager, Lovisa Ulrika. Extensive preparations were made for it. Sergel was engaged and prepared wonderful costume sketches. The King's script is extant, written out in full and complete with introductory story and all the rest of it. The plot was based on the story of Roland, which for example had been suggested by an opera of Piccini's performed at the Drottningholm Theatre one year earlier. The music, scenery plan, torchlight dances, marching order and surrounding diversions were all worked out in detail. Plans now exist for the completion and performance of this Gustavian hastilude at Drottningholm. Just over two centuries behind schedule.
The last of the Gustavian carousels, L'Entreprise de la Forêt enchantée - The Invasion of the Enchanted Forest - was performed in August 1785 in the grounds of Drottningholm, not long after the King's return from Italy. In it, new, classical elements were mingled with full-blooded romanticism. This time Gustav III was determined to burst all theatrical constraints.
No expense was spared. More than 300 people took part, dressed as Greeks, Romans, Indians, Persians, Chinese, Tartars, Saracens and Africans. The knights acted together with fairies and other fabulous beings. The famous stage designer Louis Jean Desprez were engaged to co-ordinate the costumes and to provide the enchanted forest and other decorations.
In connection with these hastiludes, entertainments were arranged and improvised in the avenues at Drottningholm, with illuminations and log fires to light up refreshments, dancing and amusements. Sad to relate, the King's grandiose dreams were partly frustrated by the unpredictable Swedish summer and by raging epidemic of measels.
Theatre in the park, the park as a theatre... A perpetual desire to stage-manage Nature. What is the Drottningholm Theatre but a piece of Nature in captivity, with landscaped wings, castle backcloths and enchained waves, winds and thunder, where knights and maidens toy with out feelings? Through his carousels, Gustav III intended to create a total theatre in which real Nature could also be subjected. His way a poetry of fantastic images. He offered a play about the noblest of feelings. A play about love, liberation and liberty.