Los Elementos at Savoy Theatre, the 1st of October, 2016

LOS ELEMENTOS

If baroque opera is seldom seen in Finland, you can say that Spanish baroque opera is a real treat. So, Los Elementos (Forces of Nature) that was composed in 1718 by Antonio de Literes was almost a must to see and definitely worth seeing. A little bit different than the Italian baroque operas that I had seen before, sung through and through, but well recognized as baroque music.

Ville Saukkonen’s production was very similar to his production of The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland that I saw earlier this autumn at Metropolia Concert Hall: background video and dancers and the lonely chair in a few scenes. But since it also worked in this opera, I have nothing to complain about. Emil Sallinen, who was responsible for the videos, had done good work with them; they both made the story and the interpretation clearer. Since in the beginning both the costumes and the make-up were so heavy that it was challenging to recognize the singers, videos made also easier to see who was who. If the background shows a sea, it is pretty easy to guess that the aria is sung by Water. Also the dancers did well. Clapping shoes became an extra instrument in the orchestra and dance was an integral part of the performance.

Tyra Therman’s costumes were a huge success. In the beginning everything was a mixture of black, white and grey excluding the red fan of Time. The dresses may have been a bit weird, but the red fan created nice drama on the stage and innovative lights (Anna Rouhu) and the costumes of the second part of the opera brought also more warmth to the performance.

You can’t really say that the opera had any clear storyline. Saukkonen’s decision was to make the story of forces of nature a part of climate change and I think it worked rather well. Otherwize waiting for Apollo would have been a rather flimsy reason to sing for an hour.

I found two favourites among the singers. Tuuli Lindeberg’s Sunrise was beautiful singing; she has great timbre in her voice and such lovely lines. My second favourite was Essi Luttinen’s Fire. Gorgeous baroque singing and enchanting ornamentation of melody.

And my evening was crowned by an autograph of Tuuli Lindeberg, since a couple of the singers came after the opera to the foyer to write autographs and I, of course, had to get hers!