During Alexander the Second's reign in Elimäki, the 11th of August, 2018

No summer without a folk opera! Jouni Sjöblom has composed and written a folk opera “During Alexander the Second’s Reign” that is performed in Elimäki and tells about the history of the district during Alexander II. The director is Piia Kleimola, the orchestra is Vokki Group and Jouni Sjöblom himself is conducting the orchestra.

Immediately when you arrive to Elimäki museum area you can see that the organizers have done a swell job. There were plenty of people showing where to park the car, free drinking water was available in several places, there were also many coffee counters and presale of coffee coupons was organized in order to avoid long queues. It is seldom that you have this well-organized events.

The performance also ran well. During most of the opera people sang together, which was probably a good solution since we are not talking about a professional group. The music consisted of songs composed for this opera and some other songs suitable for the era in question (for example the Finnish national anthem). My personal favourite was the song “Aleksanteri II:n aikaan” (During Alexander the Second’s Reign), where the melodies of the different voices rang together really beautifully. One can only thank Jouni Sjöblom for his work.

However, the performance was not only about singing, but there were lots of other performing arts involved. Sometimes you got a feeling that you do not have enough eyes to follow everything that goes on on the stage. Folk dance group Kasureikka danced several dances with vigour and talented young performers from the circus school of Tykkimäki performed their tricks (I loved the bear that came to grimace at me!).

Out of the performers I would like to especially mention Hannu Kuoppamäki, whose whole bearing as czar Alexander II was very regal, and Luukas Kaskimaa, who had two roles, and who really took both roles as his own.  

There are still several performances left (the last one on the 26th of August), so I can recommend a summer trip to Elimäki to all. You can buy tickets also in advance https://www.netticket.fi/kansanooppera.

The performers

 

The performers

Folk dance group Kasureikka

The musicians