MAGNUS-MARIA
Kulturförening Katrina
visited Finnish National Opera’s Alminsali stage and performed Karólína
Eiríksdóttir’s opera Magnus-Maria, which tells a story of Maria
Johansdotter/Magnus Johansson, who lived over 300 years ago. It is an unusual
story about a human being and his/her destiny.
The opera itself is
also unusual. The performance started already in the foyer and continued once
the audience had found their seats. The set was simple, but it really worked. The
costumes were a bit weird, but with the help of small accessory changes sex was
shown very effectively.
And the performers
were absolutely fabulous. No singer had only one role, but just about everybody
was singing at some stage the role of Magnus-Maria. Surprisingly that did not
make the opera hard to follow; actually I felt that the changes of singers
showed really well the changing roles we have in different situations, how
versatile we really are. Probably the only person who stayed Magnus-Maria
throughout the opera was the only speaking actor, Andrea Björkholm.
Even though the theme
of the opera was serious and gave food to thought, since its core question was “who
am I, what am I”, it was not in any way gloomy, but there was a lot of humour
involved. For example sheep-like baaing of the crowd, was really accurate and
funny.
I do not want to raise
any singer above others, since the whole group did excellent work. The music of
the opera was definitely difficult to sing, because singing was not just
signing but it showed the whole spectrum of human voice starting from squeaking
to snarling. The orchestra and the conductor Anna-Maria Helsing played wonderfully.
What a stunning evening!
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| Part of stage |
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| A fan product |
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