The Horseman in Pori Promenadikeskus, the 24th of November, 2017

Pori Opera Society is performing Aulis Sallinen’s opera ”The Horseman” in honour of Finnish centennial and I went to see the opening night performance. My opera trip turned out to be much more exciting than I had anticipated, since my train got broken already between Helsinki main railway station and Pasila (the first station after departure) and we had to change to a new train in Pasila. The maximum speed of the new train was lower than the original one’s, so when we left Pasila 30 minutes behind schedule, the delay increased all the time. Fortunately there was a long stop in the schedule in Tampere, so will did finally arrive in Pori only 15 minutes late. You can imagine how relieved I was!

”The Horseman” was first shown in the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1975 and it is one of the Finnish operas that are not performed every year. The libretto is by Paavo Haavikko and the story tells about Antti and Anna (a husband and wife), who are serfs in the 16^th century Novgorod (in Russia). They kill their owners, are caught in Finland, escape from prison and finally Antti dies trying to attack a royal castle. This short description of the opera is only a pale version of all that happens on the stage: it is a very complex story of strong feelings and people that cannot exactly be called lucky.

The orchestra of the opera was Pori Sinfonietta with their conductor Jan Söderblom. Sallinen’s strong music echoed in the Promenadikeskus beautifully. The director of the opera was Erik Söderblom and I would say that his work was also mainly good. I did not quite grasp all the video projections and how they were linked to the story and the time line of the opera was slightly weird. On the other hand in the beginning the story was taking place in the 16^th century Novgorod and suddenly in the third act singers were taking selfies and playing with their iPads. Perhaps the director was trying to squeeze in the centennial theme to the opera? The same schizoph

renia was seen also in the costume design: partly epoch, partly – I don’t actually know what.

But the most important thing in an opera is always the music and the singers of this opera were really well chosen. They were all good. I especially loved the performance of Anna Danik in the role of Woman. What a voice! But also Aki Alamikkotervo as the Merchant did exceptionally good work and Tapani Plathan as Antti was also impressive. And, as I said, the whole group of performers did well: Mari Palo as Anna, Sari Nordqvist as the Merchant’s wife, Rolf Broman as the Judge, Waltteri Torikka as the Yeoman, and Hannu Niemelä as Matti Puikkanen. There are still several performances left, so if you have a chance, I definitely recommend a trip to Pori.