then-fiancée Aino Järnefelt detailed how difficult and unnatural he found the task of setting a Finnish text. Third, there was little market for Finnish opera. Domestically, the Finnish Opera Company remained disbanded and Helsinki was still without an opera house. Internationally, Sibelius—as a composer who desired an international reputation—probably recognized that a Finnish-language opera would have little appeal in Germany, "the land of musical milk and honey". Finally, the question may be misplaced. The lottery soirées were seen as a time for the nation, however internally divided over language, to unify against a common foe: Imperial Russia. As such, the evenings brought the feuding sides together under one roof and offered bilingual programming. Indeed, not only was Sibelius's The Maiden in the Tower balanced during its premiere with the performance of a Finnish-language version of , an 1851 by the Belgian composer Albert Grisar, but afterwards, was selected to translate Hertzberg's libretto into Finnish. Later opinions of Sibelius's music Most commentators have viewed Sibelius's music positively. Hannikainen describes The Maiden in the Tower as an "early masterwork ... in spite of some weaknesses", while the music critic David Hurwitz calls it a "slender but typically appealing effort ... [with] vocal writing throughout [that] is effective and confident". The music journalist writes favorably that "the orchestration is skillful, the melodies are memorable, and there is enough dramatic fire in the setting". Tawaststjerna argues that "Sibelius shows ... considerable talent for musical drama"; in particular, he cites the Maiden's part as "anticipat[ing his] 'great' solo songs", such as Autumn Evening (; Op. 38/1, 1904), On the Veranda by the Sea (; Op. 38/2, 1903), and Jubal (Op. 35/1, 1908). "Considering that it is a first attempt," he continues, "The Maiden in the Tower has moments of unmistakable effectiveness ... as in the symphonies, Sibelius shows his command of musical movement and his capacity to build up a convincingly realized climax". Conversely, the musicologist and Sibelius biographer Cecil Gray posits that Sibelius's heart wasn't in The Maiden in the Tower: as a commissioned work, it lacks "any inner prompting or inclination ... it [is] completely negligible". Similarly, the musicologist and Sibelius biographer Robert Layton writes that "deep inside him Sibelius must have recognized the truth that his was not an operatic talent ... [The Maiden in the Tower lacks] a sense of mastery ... it must be admitted that this is neither good