The Old Maid and the Thief in Logomo's Theatre stage in Turku, the 10th of November, 2017

Saaristo-ooppera is performing a hilarious version of Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera “The Old Maid and the Thief” in Logomo’s Theatre stage in Turku. The opera was originally a radio opera, though Menotti made also another version for theatre stage. The story tells about an old maid Miss Todd and her maid Letitia, their house guest Bob and rumours that circle around telling about a thief that is free in the area. In Saaristo-ooppera’s Finnish language version the opera is played in a radio studio.

Menotti’s music is in this opera light and cheerful. Especially Miss Todd and Miss Pinkerton (her gossip-loving buddy) have nice, melodic duets.

From the point of view of singing the opera was not world class, but as a performance it was superb. All performers made the most of their roles and created a lot of fun moments for the audience. Jukka Rasila, who had a speaking role – though he ended up signing at one point – and the pianist Pasi Helin also did great performances. Juha Hostikka in the role of Bob was the star singer of the night. His air “When the air sings of summer” was magnificent.

“The Old Maid and the Thief” is an excellent opera to lighten up these murky autumns evenings even when you are not very interested in opera as an art form. There are still two performance left: on Tuesday the 14^th and Wednesday the 15^th of November and I warmly recommend a visit to Logomo. The opera lasts only an hour and 15 minutes, so it does not even take the whole evening and it is thus easy to cram even to a bit busier schedule.