The Baroque Festival
of Vaasa shows this year in the banquet hall of the Vaasa City Hall Händel’s
Alcina from 1735. This was the first time the opera was performed in Finland
and after hearing it the audience could only ask, why an earth hasn’t this
opera been shown before in Finland. The story is, of course, as idiotic as in
many other operas, but the music is fascinating. The whole opera is a feast of beautiful
arias one after another. We
need more of this in Finland!
So, the story is
rather ridiculous. A woman’s (Bradamante) lover (Ruggiero) has disappeared and
is found on an island, where Alcina has charmed him with her magic. All the
previous lovers Alcina has changed into bushes or animals. Bradamante dresses
as a man and enters the island to rescue her lover and, of course, the other
woman on the island (Morgana) falls in love with her. Naturally in the end the
magic is broken, all become human beings again and the lovers end up together.
Alcina was
performed half staged in Vaasa. Since
we are not talking about a theatre, it was quite natural that the setting was
only a few chairs, but performers were carrying costumes and moved about as if
in a proper opera performance. The director, Vappu Kiljunen, had done a great
job with the opera. The orchestra was Vaasa City Orchestra and the conductor Aapo
Häkkinen. From the first note it was clear that the cooperation between the
orchestra and the conductor bore magnificent fruit. The City Orchestra had become a baroque orchestra.
Their playing was delicious and
the acoustics was also good.
But the crowning glory
of the evening were the fantastic female soloists: Suvi Väyrynen as Alcina,
Erika Back as Ruggiero, Kajsa Dahlbäck as Morgana, Monica Groop as Bradamante
and Elina Granlund as Oberto. When Finland has such baroque singers, why, oh
why do we not see baroque operas more often? It is honestly nearly impossible
to raise anyone above others in this group, but my personal favourite turned
out to be Erika Back. Divine singing: the correct technique was there and the
timbre of her voice was incredibly beautiful. In addition to singing she also
managed to act really well. She was the noble Ruggiero, charmed by Alcina and
it was all credible! I also need to separately mention Elina Granlund in the
role of young Oberto. I had not heard her before, which was not surprising
taking into account that according to the programme she had made her opera
debut only this August in Åland. But already based on this small role I can
say, that I hope I will hear her also in the future. Hopefully next autumn on
the next Vaasa Baroque Festival there will be again some great baroque opera,
where we can hear these or other equally splendid soloists!
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| The City Hall |
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| The performers |
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