I liked tremendously Ulla-Lena Lundberg’s novel ”Ice” that received the Finlandia Prize in 2012. The language of the novel (I read it in the original, in Swedish, so I am not sure about the English translation) was beautiful and the story made you a part of the hard life in the Finnish archipelago. That is why I was waiting for this opera with mixed feelings – especially since the libretto was not written by Lundberg, but by Juhani Koivisto – and it was not in Swedish, but in Finnish. Since written language and music use different in their tools of expressing emotions, I was hoping for a positive experience, but I thought it would be difficult to reach the grasping atmosphere of the novel. But a new Finnish opera is always a landmark, so there was a lot of tension in the air before the performance.
”Ice” tells a story about a new priest – Petter Kummelin - who arrives to a congregation in the Finnish archipelago, his wife Mona, inhabitants in the villages, the sea and the death of Petter on the weak ice.
It cannot be easy to write a libretto based on a novel like ”Ice”, where most of the story is description of everyday life, even if under harsh conditions of the archipelago. This challenge was in my opinion clearly visible in the two first acts, which remained as a disconnected queue of events. Only in the third act, where Petter Kummel dies and which describes the sorrow of his widow Mona, the story deepens and I noticed that I also improved my sitting position to concentrate better.
In the work of the composer Jaakko Kuusisto (who also was the conductor) you could hear the same dilemma as in the libretto. Even though throughout the opera you could hear that one of the main characters of the opera was the sea, only in the third act the strength of the music grew to dramatic spheres, which woke you up to really listen to the music. Kuusisto has told that he began composing the opera from Mona’s aria in the third act, which actually was one of the most impressive moments of the whole opera.
I liked the direction of the opera (Anna Kelo), where the beauty of everyday life was given room. Creating life in the archipelago is, of course, easier with the help of today’s technology than it used to be, but creating the right atmosphere still requires talent. Extremely successful set design by Kati Lukka and Thomas Hase’s light and video design helped in this creation.
Aarne Pelkonen in the role of Petter Kummel was excellent. He has a superbly natural singing technique, which was a pleasure to listen to. No sound was forced and I certainly hope that he will in future sing also more in Finland and not just in the German opera houses, where he has mostly sung in the recent years. He did a very credible role as the nice new priest. Mari Palo did also a good role as the somewhat angry and efficient wife. I have normally always liked the singing of Jeni Packalen as I did this time, too, even though the scenes with her character – Irina Gyllen – sometimes seemed a bit extra.
Despite the weaker first two acts, the whole opera was a positive experience thanks to the strong third act and I can definitely recommend it to everybody. There are still some performances left and even some tickets seem to be available. And I really recommend reading the novel by Ulla-Lena Lundberg!
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