THE MEAL OF LOVE
In the honour of the
500th anniversary of reformation, the Foundation of Lutheran Culture and
Finnish Chamber Opera commissioned a new church opera from composer Matti
Heininen. The theme was the first communion. The opera has been performed
already a few times in different parts of Finland and now it was time to see it
in Mäntsälä.
I have to say that it was
quite a performance (and not in the good sense). Music was rather modern and I
am not sure, how well it suited this type of work. The interest of the composer
to electronic music was clearly heard in the opera. Organ was the main
instrument and in addition to that there were bells and some percussions
including a wooden stick that was hit on the floor (to tell the truth I do not
know if this stick has a fancier name). I cannot say that I enjoyed the music
much.
The direction was
rather simple, mostly Jesus and the Disciples just walked there and back or
around and around. On the other hand a church may not be the best place for any
boisterous acting; even now the scene, where Judas turns out to be the traitor
left a bit weird impression. It actually reminded me of a zealous meeting of
some strange religious sect.
When the music and
direction did not make any huge positive impression, the only thing that saved
the evening from a total flop was Kristian Lindroos as Jesus. His singing was
beautiful and it was a pleasure to listen to. Even his performance as Jesus was
not something to remember, but at least his singing raised him above all
others. Ossi Jauhiainen in the role of Simon Peter did also rather good work.
Mostly the roles were sung by students from the Kuopio Conservatory or the
Kuopio unit of Sibelius Academy and despite their sincere attempts, one must
say that they still need to rehearse quite a lot before they will be able to
perform well in a bigger opera role.
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| The performers |
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| The Mäntsälä church |
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