The Maiden of the North

[1] The opera tells a story from The Kalevala, Finland's national epic, in which the old wizard Väinämöinen and the blacksmith Ilmarinen, as rival suitors, vie for the hand of the beautiful Maiden of Pohjola; she is the daughter of Louhi, the villainous Queen of the Northland.

)[2][a] At the time, all extant operas by Finnish composers—for example, Fredrik Pacius's King Charles's Hunt (Kung Karls jakt, 1852) and Jean Sibelius's The Maiden in the Tower (Jungfrun i tornet, 1896)—had been written to Swedish-language libretti.

The awards jury, which included such Helsinki luminaries as Kaarlo Bergbom, Richard Faltin [fi], Arvid Genetz, Robert Kajanus, and Sibelius, was "extremely critical" of Merikanto's music, arguing that it was "simple"; but because Merikanto had met the parameters of the contest to create a national opera, the awards jury had little choice but to approve his entry.

[4] Nevertheless, the jury refused to stage The Maiden of the North, even though Bergbom's Finnish Theatre would have been an obvious venue to premiere the work.

Merikanto conducted the town orchestra, which had to be reinforced by 35 musicians from the Helsinki Orchestral Society, and an amateur chorus comprising local singers and students from the Vyborg Church Music School.