There are at the moment in the Helsinki Convervatory performances of Jacques Offenbach’s operetta (opera) “Orpheus in the Underworld”. I saw myself the second first night. This operetta (or opera) is based on the story of Orpheus, whose wife Eurydice dies at their wedding and ends up in the Underworld. Orpheus goes to fetch her back (in the opera against his will, forced by the public opinion). Eurydice is in the beginning quite happy in the Underworld with Pluton, but then the king of the gods, Jupiter makes her heart beat faster. However, Jupiter is forced by the others to let her leave the Underworld with Orpheus, but he decrees that if Orpheus turns to look at Eurydice during the return trip, she will die again. And, of course, Jupiter scares Orpheus to turn by a strike of a lightning. There exists two versions of the operetta and the one seen at the conservatory is the original from 1858 in two acts.
The director Juulia Tapola has created a suitably crazy story and everything (set design, costume design – Pia Lasonen – and video projections – Tapola) are in line. Since the music is also playful, her work suits this operetta perfectly.
Even if you have never heard of this operetta, you are bound to recognize some of the music of Offenbach. At least the end scene cancan is known to everybody. On the whole the music is really riveting, so that I can recommend this performance also to those people, who are not so keen on classical music.
Out of the soloists I liked the most Jarkko Salminen who sang the role of Jupiter. Both his voice and his gestalt were fully suitable to the role. Akseli Ferrand and Helmi Huczkowski also did good work as the main couple. Niilo Erkkilä as Pluton and Ilmari Leisma as John Styx also did perky performances. Sure, you could hear that some of the singers were in the beginning of their operatic careers, but you have to start somewhere.
There are still some performances left, so I recommend to buy tickets via the conservatory’s site www.konservatorio.fi.
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti