Measha Brueggergosman in the Finnish National Opera, the 30th of May, 2018

Next season the Finnish National Opera will show Jacques Offenbach’s opera ”The Tales of Hoffmann”, where Canadian Measha Brueggergosman will have a role. She also ended National Opera’s season with her concert “The Many Sides of Measha”. She was joined by musical theatre professional Fred Johanson, pianist Jukka Nykänen plus orchestra and chorus of the Finnish National Opera.

Brueggergosman (phew, I think I will start calling her Measha) is known in her home country as a crossover artist and this became clear during the evening. In the beginning Measha sang a couple of opera arias and to tell the truth, I wasn’t that impressed. Her voice was passable, but the vibrato was so strong that the teeth of the audience almost clattered. So, I was almost relieved when she moved to other songs.

The finest song of the evening was in my opinion the negro spiritual “Swing Low”. Good version and played well with the opera chorus. I also liked the extra, which was Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, even though it is rather tired a song already. But most of the songs weren’t that fresh either, so “Hallelujah” suited the whole. Measha is without doubt an experienced performer and she took her audience beautifully. I wouldn’t classify her as a very good opera singer, but definitely as a talented entertaining artist.

Fred Johansen, who represented the male voice in the concert, was an ok musical theatre singer. He did not evoke any strong passion, but he was ok. The chorus of the Finnish National Opera was – as usual – superb: this group is truly capable of almost anything. The orchestra on the Finnish National Opera also did reach the necessary lightness in the music and Nick Davies as the conductor did well.

The pianist Jukka Nykänen was once again stellar. In addition to being an excellent pianist, he is also a fantastic performer, who can make anybody smile.