LADY MACBETH OF
MTSENSK DISTRICT
Last season the
Finnish National Opera showed Nose by Dmitri Shostakovich and now they did his
last complete opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District. After hearing this opera
I had to say that it really is a pity that Shostakovich never composed his
planned series of women operas after he got scared by Stalin’s critique. I
really would have liked to hear those operas!
From the musical point
of view the evening was fabulous. Shostakovich’s music in this opera is awesome
and the orchestra and the conductor Oleg Caetani did a wonderful job honoring
the great master composer. The warning of high noise level on the National
opera’s web site should be, by the way, taken seriously. I don’t think I have
ever heard such roaring music in this house! I fell in love with the versatile
nature of the music. Even though the opera lasts for over three hours, you
could never get bored, since there are new musical surprises coming around the
corner all the time. Yummy!
The performers also
were top quality. The main roles were filled by Russian singers and the leading
lady’s part was sung by Svetlana Sozdateleva. She has a lovely Russian soprano
voice and she made a great impression in this role. All in all I can say that
the performers’ presence during the opera was exceptional. The Finnish singers
in the smaller roles did well, too, even though some of them could use a little
more work on their Russian pronunciation. Mika Pohjonen in the role of Zinevi
Izmailov was a positive surprise. He impressed both by his singing and his
performance. I have to admit that I would not have recognized him in this role,
if I had not read his name in the programme
The set and costumes
had been made rather simple and grey. I think the biggest audience favourites
were the members of the brass orchestra, who marched at regular intervals to
the stage in their school girl uniforms. I didn’t find them very necessary from
the point of the view of the story. However, there were also other comic
elements in the opera, for example, the rubber fish that were used like
baseball bats during the performance, so I suppose it is ok to have some
bearded schoolgirls in the posse.
This opera oozes
energy and will be remembered a long time. Absolutely wonderful opera, which I
can recommend to everybody.
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| The curtain (a fish?) |
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