Surprise Eternal River in Iittala Hall, the 13th of June, 2018

Finnish composer Toivo Kuula died exactly 100 years ago and to honour it, Iittala Music Festival had in their programme their first ever opera - "Yllätä ikuinen virta" (Surprise Eternal River). The opera was a story of the life and death of Toivo Kuula and it was composed by Sampsa Ertamo. The director of the opera – Arto Myllärinen – had also written the libretto.

First of all, I must say that the place of performance – Iittala Hall – posed challenges to an opera. Sports arenas are rarely the most suitable environments for operas, but taking into account the restrictions the work group had rather well managed to minimize the challenges posed by the venue.  Especially successful was in my opinion the work of Hannes Horma, who handled the light design. The hall had very limited possibilities to create interesting lightning solutions, but Horma managed with limited resources to create a colourful lightning package that took into account the nuances of the performance.

The music of the opera did not leave deep traces in my memory. Odysseus Quartet, who played in the performance, did its job pretty well and the music of the 1^st of May scene was positively boisterous, but mostly their playing did not rise to foreground. The libretto of the opera was a bit dull and dialogue was from time to time downright predictable. Even though the opera went through both the end of Kuula’s first marriage and the challenging start of the new marriage, the performers were not able to create any tension on the stage. The direction was somewhat clichéd, but that may have been – at least partly – caused by the restrictions of the venue; even though the overall impression was a bit dull, it was probably a good thing that the soloists sung all the time facing the audience, so that they could be heard better.

Out of the soloists I liked best Eeva Semerdijev, who sung the role of Silja Valo (Kuula’s first wife). I had not heard her sing before and her mezzosoprano had a promising clang. Kalle Virtanen, who sang the main role as Toivo Kuula, looked a lot like him, which added some feeling of reality to the performance. And even though articulation cannot always be quite exact when singing (e.g. high notes), I would say that Matti Torhamo, who sang the roles of Kuula’s father and Jean Sibelius (famous Finnish composer), really should invest a lot more to improving his articulation. One should pronounce the consonants, too.

But once again I must say that it is wonderful that this kind of productions that are based on a lot of volunteer work, see daylight. And of course, the life of Toivo Kuula is definitely worth at least one opera!