Tapio Tuomela’s opera ”Fur hat opera” was shown as a guest performance on the Alminsali stage of the Finnish National Opera. The story of the opera is a piece of Finnish history: after a dam was built to the river Kemi, the salmon fishers of the region were promised compensation, which delayed and delayed. Finally, they got fed up and sent a delegation to the capital city to meet politicians. They actually managed to get their compensation, though it was nominal. In addition to the main story, there was also a story of a couple, where the husband was conserned about joining the delegation and he meets a ghost from the past.
Even though the theme of the opera is important and serious,
I did not think the opera itself was very good. Contrary to the delegation
members, the politicians were portrayed as pure clowns (the ministers wore tutus,
and the president was in his underwear), which in my opinion weakened the
message of the story. And I did not really understand, why the blue-collar
workers in Helsinki were rapping in the middle of everything. Somehow I got a feeling that the theme of the
opera and the opera itself were not in balance. Of course, it is
possible to use humour to lighten a serious message, but in this case it was
not really humour but cheap mockery.
The background documentary films I liked, and they mostly fitted
the story very well, though it would probably have been easier to follow them,
it they had run only during the orchestra pieces. The ghost of Piija was a bit
unusual addition to the story and perhaps not fully good taste. However, my
favourite singer was Hanna Rantala in the role of Piija.
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