This article features the Gothenburg Opera House stamp from Sweden in 1994. Opera houses, symphony halls, and theaters, are fairly common themes on postage stamps. Such buildings are often among the most important civic buildings in a country or state. For example, they can be monuments to the fine arts, and gathering spots for the cultural, economic, and political elite. Consequently, you can find other posts of mine about stamps honoring major anniversaries of the Khedevial Opera House in Cairo, the Mariinsky/Kirov Ballet and Opera house in St. Petersburg, and La Scala in Milan. You can also read about the set of stamps featuring the more modern Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Germany.
The Gothenburg Opera House
Planning for the Göteborgsoperan (Gothenburg opera house) began in the fall of 1989. The architect for the new post-modern design building was Jan Isikowitz, who took inspiration from the nearby harbor. The ground breaking took place in June of 1991.
Isikowitz wrote of the design: “The building should be possessed by an airiness that sends your mind soaring across the meandering landscape like wings of seagulls. Its shape should be inspired by its location, from the magnificent but elusive landscape with its light and open spaces, to the harbor’s more tangible technical constructions; the bridges gracefully suspended across the water, the transparent framework of the harbor cranes, the strength, softness and elegance of the ships’ hulls, the wings of seagulls and the flawless aerodynamic shape of sails.”
The inauguration of the 1,300 seat hall took place in October of 1994. Additionally, the opera house houses ballet and musical theater productions.
The Stamp
Sweden, 1994
Scott Number SE 2019
The stamp became available on August 26, 1994, a few weeks before the inauguration of the hall on October 1. I believe the engraving for the stamp was by Martin Mörck, as you can see the initials M. M. in the lower left and lower right corner. Also, Mörck was the engraver of a stamp of Swedish composer Johan Helmich Roman that was a pair to the opera house stamp.
The engraving of the building is a dark violet-brown, standing above the placid dark blue of the harbor water. Behind the building is a page from the opera Aniara the first opera performed in the house on October 15, 1994. The opera was by Karl Birger Blomdahl (1916-1968) and takes place on a spaceship carrying emigrants from a decimated earth. You can learn more in this resource from the motivgruppe-muisk.
Check out this performance in the Gothenburg opera house:
