Princess Cecilia in Helsinki Music Centre, the 17th of August, 2017

PRINCESS CECILIA

 

Helsinki Festival should receive an award for an exceptional act in promoting culture thanks to including in their programme Princess Cecilia –opera (as a concert version) by Väinö Raitio that was last staged in 1936. I believe, Raitio’s name is not very well known to most of us, which – based on this opera – is a pity. Raitio was one of the most important modernists of his era, even though the conditions in the early 20^th century were such that he never became as well-known as one could have or actually should have become.

The story line is about princess Cecilia’s and count John’s unlucky love story; first the young lovers meet, they are separated, they meet a few times in passing later in life and in the end the old Cecilia dies after seeing John for the last time.

The libretto by Huugo Jalkanen was not very impressive, but Väinö Raitio’s music definitely was, and with the word music, I really mean here the orchestral part. The dramatic start of the piece already made you shiver in anticipation and the rest was equally fascinating. The music was as a whole extremely expressive; and stormy, dramatic scenes were quickly replaced by calm, soothing moments. I really would like to hear this opera again without the singing so that I could better concentrate on the music alone. The Finnish Radio Symphony orchestra with its conductor Hannu Lintu performed superbly. I especially admired the wind instruments.

The singing was an interesting mixture of pure opera and lighter pieces like the mocking songs of the court jester (Petri Bäckström) in the third act or the boisterous drinking songs in the sixth act. The singer above all others – in my opinion – was Johanna Rusanen-Kartano. I truly enjoyed watching the scenes between her and Tuomas Katajala (prince Eric). Both used their facial expressions and their gestures beautifully to express emotions even though this was “only” a concert version. After all, singing is not only about technical mastership but also about conveying feelings. Rusanen-Kartano was magnificent as the old Cecilia in the sixth act. One could really hear the experience of a mature woman in her singing!

The Helsinki Music Centre Choir sang also really nicely its lamentably scarce songs. In addition to the choir there were some soloist from the Sibelius Academy in smaller parts, out of which I need to mention Visa Kohva, who sang once again beautifully a few lines as one of the tipplers.