The Barber of Seville in the Alexander Theatre, the 31st of August, 2017

My first year as an opera blogger (without skipping other genres of musical theatre) has now passed and I have collected a lot of wonderful memories. During these 12 months I have seen spectacular performances and fantastic soloists; sometimes I have giggled in the audience and occasionally my eyes have brimmed with tears. Maybe these past 12 months can be summarized by the words of a T-shirt I saw in Ilmajoki: ”All else is superfluous except opera”.

The second 12-month period I started with an old acquaintance “The Barber of Seville” by Opera Box in the Alexander Theatre. This time it was performed in Finnish, which was quite cute; these days most classic are not translated anymore except Magic Flute. I liked the Finnish text, so the experience was positive despite the fact that I usually like the original language versions better.

The director Ville Saukkonen had decided to make the performance over the top. Already during the overture Figaro managed to mutilate several clients. The clipping of his scissors became a part of the music played by Sinfonietta Ariadne (the orchestra). Markus Nieminen in the role of Figaro got a chance to showcase his comical talents to his heart’s content. The further the opera got the wilder the happenings on the stage got: Spanish football fans, tourists from the first charter flights to Spain and a fully medicated patient all got their turn in the limelight.  Some of the incidents were truly funny, some just hassle to fill the stage.

From the point of view of singing the evening was a bit uneven. Rossini’s tunes require a lot of agility from a voice and some singers had it more than others. I especially enjoyed Reetta Haavisto’s performance in the role of Berta; beautiful singing. I was also looking forward to Essi Luttinen’s performance as Rosina with interest, but perhaps the role was not quite ideal for her. She sang all the ornamentations without fault, but maybe the role did not fully fit to her voice type, since something was missing. I occasionally remembered with longing Victoria Yarovaya, whom I saw in the same role in the beginning of this year.

The best part of the opera were perhaps the costumes by Hanna Hakkarainen and the make-up by Miika Heikkinen. Both were imaginative and the visual effect was perky and gripping.