The Coronation of Poppea in Helsinki Conservatory, the 1st of September, 2017

Due to tight schedules, I was forced to see two operas by director Ville Saukkonen in consecutive evenings and that was perhaps a bit too much. On Friday evening I saw the Coronation of Poppea in the Helsinki Conservatory. This opera was the last of the three operas by Claudio Monteverdi performed in the last three years. Finnish Chamber Opera also performed it two years ago in Alminsali, in Helsinki. This version was produced by Orpheus’ Muses and was totally different in style

The production was rather typical Saukkonen: colourful, a bit restless and over the top. When the costume designer was also the same as in previous evening’s Barber of Seville, you could not avoid seeing the similarities. Hakkarainen, for example, seems to be fond of shiny miniskirts at the moment.

Set design was simple and consisted of three beds, but additional effects were created by video projections as so often happens in Saukkonen’s productions. And this time, too, there was a group of dancers, though I have to admit that I did not always understand their role.

Monteverdi’s music in the Coronation of Poppea is at its most beautiful and fortunately the performers were mostly up to it. The singer above all others was Merja Mäkelä, who sang the role of Nerone and whose gorgeous voice and confident performance charmed. She absolutely dominated the stage whenever she was present.

Katja Vaahtera as Poppea sang very beautifully Monteverdi’s decorative tunes despite the fact that the costume designer had in one act squeezed her in such a short dress that moving around without revealing anything extra was a true challenge. Vaahtera really deserves extra credit for being able to sing in such a relaxed fashion even though she was forced to regularly tug her dress downward as unobtrusively as possible.

I was looking forward to hearing Iida Antola, who in the previous opera of Orpheus’ Muses (Dido and Aeneas) sang so beautifully. In the Coronation of Poppea she had two small roles as La Virtú and Pallade. And again she did a fantastic performance; it really is a huge joy to hear her bright soprano. A great job did also Sofia Buono as La Fortuna and Linda Rolig as Amore (I saw her last in the beginning of the year as Emma in the Moomin Opera).