ABRAHAM’S BANQUET
This year a lot of
both new and old, rarely seen operas have been (and will be) performed in
honour of Finland’s centennial. One of these new operas is Jukka Linkola’s
opera Abraham’s Banquet, that is also honouring the 540 year celebrations of
Liminka and tells the story of Abraham Ojanperä, who was an opera singer and
teacher from Liminka.
The opera is performed
in the brand new Liminka Culture Arena (unfortunately the Finnish name is totally
against all rules of Finnish grammar), a covered stage and stand built this
summer in the museum area of Old Liminka. Abraham Ojanperä’s home – Aappola –
is also situated in the museum area and can be visited during the opera
evenings.
On the whole I can say
that the opera was a wonderful effort from the local people. You could sense
the sunny team spirit and I really liked the joint scenes of the chorus and the
dancers. They clearly supported each other’s strengths.
But the best part of
the opera was without doubt the music by Jukka Linkola. It was good, energetic
and well suited to the theme. The hymn “Merenpohjasta kauin kuulen” was a true
earworm! By the way, if you want to hear it, you can find it in Youtube.
Unfortunately Helena Tornberg’s libretto did not reach the level of the music.
The lines were often, to tell you the truth, rather corny. Fortunately,
especially the chorus parts, were often so unclearly sung that you could not decipher
the words.
Out of the soloists
Tomi Punkeri did, as expected, a good performance. And I was positively
surprised how fine a soprano voice Virva Puumala had (she sang the role of
Aurora Hanneborg). But perhaps my biggest favourite was the horse – Kille (performed
by Finnish horse Sakke). It did not sing, but it performed really well and its
bow in the end was superb.
During the opening
night the sound reinforcement did not work perfectly. Sometimes you started to
hear the lines only from the third word onwards and some performers were heard
less well than others, but I am sure this will improve in the next performances.
There are still several performances left, so I can recommend this opera for
everybody who is travelling in the Oulu area in the near future.
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| Aappola |
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| The team |
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| Finnish horse Sakke with Meri Leinonen |
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