OWN FAULT
When Saaristo-opera
showed end of last year opera ”Own Fault” by Olli Kortekangas, I was really
disappointed that I heard of the event so late, that I could no longer travel
to Turku to see it. So you can imagine how extremely happy I was, when I noticed that this opera
monologue will be performed a few times at National Theatre’s Willensauna-stage
in Helsinki during the summer. I immediately bought the ticket for last
Thursday (last performance). As you can see, I almost missed the opera again,
which would have been a true loss.
The story of the opera
is based on the notes, written by Sauli Tiilikainen after his daughter’s
suicide.
Own Fault was opera at
its best: beautiful music and heart breaking feelings. I have seen some operas
by Kortekangas earlier and I may not be his greatest fan, but this time his
music really hit me. It expressed the great themes of the opera on the dot:
deep sorrow, feelings of guilt and love.The greatest star of the opera was, however, Sauli Tiilikainen. He lived on stage the whole spectrum of feelings as the father whose daughter committed suicide: from extreme sorrow through what ifs to pure tragicomedy. The exclamation of the father after several sleepless nights “It was murder” felt so true! And I am pretty sure that after the part “Farewell” there weren’t many dry eyes in the audience, so beautifully the lovely music and the daughter’s farewell letter to her child were combined.
The opera was in its simplicity really fantastic. The set was simple, only a wooden casket and a bunch of paper. Nor were the costumes fancy. But the most important thing was the music and the feeling. This opera is definitely worth seeing and I could go and see it again and again.
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| Photo: Helsingin Sanomat |
