The Hunt of King Charles in the Helsinki Conservatory Concert Hall, the 7th of April, 2019

This is the third production of the first Finnish opera “Kung Karls jakt” (The Hunt of King Charles) by Fredrik Pacius from 1852 that I have seen. The last time was already some time ago, so it was nice to refresh my memory by Metropolia’s (University of Applied Sciences) version that is now shown in the Helsinki Conservatory’s Concert Hall in Ruoholahti, a stone throw away from the metro station. 

The libretto (in Swedish) was written by Zacharias Topelius (an iconic Finnish writer). The opera may not be the best in the world, but it was at its time immensely popular and it still has a certain iconic position as the first Finnish opera.

The story of the opera is about a hunting trip that the Swedish King (at those days Finland was part of the Swedish kingdom) Charles XI did to Aland (a big island between Finnish and Swedish mainlands) in 1672 at the age of 16. The hunting trip really took place but the rest of the story is pure fiction. In the opera a young man from Aland – Jonathan – shoots the elk that the king is hunting. Killing the king’s elk is a huge crime and Jonathan is sentenced to death. At the same time Jonathan’s girlfriend Leonora stumbles to a coup d’état plot by a group of noblemen. She reveals the plot to the king and as a reward the grateful king reprieves Jonathan.

Ville Sandqvist’s direction was quite simple. Set design was almost non-existent and more attention was paid to costumes by Riitta Nieminen. I have never heard such powerful echo of the singing voices at the stage of the conservatory as in this opera. Partly the reason may have been that the stage was almost empty of sets. Sandqvist has made an interesting decision to place the Helsinki Philharmonic Choir dressed in their black choir garb in one corner of the stage. In the beginning it looked a bit funny, but in the end – I think – it was a good solution. The two so called agents also filled the less dramatic moments of the plot rather entertainingly. At one time they even distributed some summer fair candies to the audience.

The level of the soloists varied, but two of them were in my opinion above others. Laura Juvonen in the role of Leonora made a great impression both with her voice and with her acting. Samuli Takkula in the role of Gustaf Gyllenstjerna also succeeded in his role very well. The music of the opera was rather versatile, so it required also a lot from the orchestra. Conductor Sasha Mäkinen lead the Helsinki Metropolitan orchestra and at least in my ears their work sounded good.