Dante's Punchlines in Pyynikkisali, in Tampere, the 2nd of December, 2017

Tenor Petteri Loukio’s graduation work in the opera monologue ”Dante’s Punchlines” sent me to Tampere, to Pyynikkisali to listen to a modern opera by an unknown to me composer Pauli Marttinen. And what a good thing that I went there!

After I had read the programme, I was a bit doubtful, since the programme leaflet said that ”the opera lacks not only time signature, but also joint to all performers tempo and pulse”. So I thought that I would be facing a really modern opera that consisted mainly of dissonance. Well, there may not have been any time signature, but the music actually swept you away.

Pauli Marttinen is studying composing in Tampere University of applied sciences and based on this opera alone I certainly hope that he will continue composing operas, which I actually told him, too, after the opera. The music of the opera was truly fascinating. There were three percussionists on the stage (Eppu Hietalahti, Renato Taddeo and Sakari Viitala) plus a pianist (Tuomas Salokangas). How incredibly breathtaking texture of music can one built with percussions only. The music, created by Marttinen, was extremely versatile and had echoes of both African and Asian music. Absolutely fabulous! I would actually like to hear the opera a second time, since I am certain that I could not hear all the fine details during this one performance.

Marttinen was also responsible for the libretto, that was based on Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy”. I have to admit that the libretto may not have contained any story with a clear plot, but it was said already in the programme that “if something can be seen as agreeable to you, then that it surely is. Yes, and other interpretations are wrong.” So, if I interpret that the opera was a story about a path that lead to happiness via misery, I must be right.

The group of performers played really well together. The musicians, the dancer (Jessi Palovaara) and the soloist himself, Petteri Loukio must have worked hard on the opera, because the performance was impressive. In my opinion Loukio did well with the challenging monologue. The performance was very physical and intensive, but despite that Loukio’s voice rang – especially in the higher notes – beautifully.

I really hope that this will not be the one and only performance of the opera, because it would really be a pity, if such an interesting work would be seen only by today’s audience (it was not a big crowd). If you ever see this opera somewhere in the programme, please, go and see it! Great performance!

 

Pauli Marttinen

The performers