Great Opera Gala in Lohja, the 16th of August, 2018

Festival ”Lohja Soi” (previously called ”Lohja Tenor Days”) organized also this year their traditional Great Opera Gala in the Laurentius Hall in Lohja. The acoustics of the Hall may not be the best in the world, but this year’s singers definitely were top notch: bass Mika Kares, tenor Tuomas Katajala, mezzosoprano Monica Groop and soprano Camilla Nylund. The orchestra was Lohja City Orchestra with their conductor Markus Lehtinen. And the host of the even was (with somewhat longish speeches) Aarno Cronvall.

The programme consisted of arias, duets and overtures from several composers (Bizet, Dvořák, Massenet, Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Verdi, von Weber) and the evening was full of special moments.  

What were then the most memorable performances in my opinion? It is not very easy to make such a list and I was almost forced to draw lots a few times between two of performance, but here is one delicious performance from each singer (with arguments).  

Mika Vares has plenty of stage charisma and with age he will probably gain more of it. My favourite of his performances was ”Wer ein Liebchen hat gefunden” from Mozart’s opera “The Abduction from the Seraglio”. Kares seemed to be fully at home in the role of Osmin and the performance was truly memorable.

My choice of the performances from the marvellous Tuomas Katajala is ”Durch die Wälder, durch die Auen” from von Weber’s opera “The Marksman”. The aria is a part of Katajala’s new future roles (he will sing the role of Max in Vienna next spring), which would alone merit a nomination to my list, but in addition to that he managed to create such fervor to the aria, that it – at least in my eyes – rose to a totally new level.

Monica Groop’s star moment was ”Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix” from the opera ”Samson and Delilah” by Saint-Saëns. Groop’s supreme ability to mirror emotions in her voice drops the listener to his/her knees. This aria also went straight to my heart.

One of the arias that I looked forward to when the concert began was Camilla Nylund’s “Dich Teure Halle” from Wagner’s “Tannhäuser”. The aria is tremendously beautiful as such, but Nylund’s interpretation is unbelievable. I just had to clap my hands to it until they were sore.