In the last
few years I have seen Henry Purcell’s opera ”Dido and Aeneas” by some smaller
operatic groups at least once a year. This time Ooppera Artico produced the
opera in Koko Theatre in Hakaniemi (HelsinkI). Artico had moved the opera to
modern day West-Africa. The leading lady (Dido) Laura Pyrrö spent some time in
the spring 2018 in the Finnish-African artist residence Villa Karo in Benin and
got there an idea to move the opera from ancient Carthago to West-Africa. And when
she took with her back to Finland a load of different type of props, a piece of
Africa was built to Koko Theatre.
The
director of the opera was Anselmi Hirvonen and in my opinion he did a good job
taking into account the circumstances. I especially liked the dramatic end of
the opera. The visual effects created by the group were in total well done. In
the background changing photos from Benin and the performers had African style
garments and accessories from African materials. And I have to admit that I
have never seen African dances performed to baroque music before (dancer
Dominique Soussou, who has recently moved to Finland from Benin). Certainly
memorable!
The
orchestra of the evening was Ensemble Nylandia, who I always enjoy listening
to. The small, four-person orchestra was perfect for such a small theatre. The background
vocals were sung (at time a bit unevenly) by the quartet of Kaari-ensemble.
My favorite
among the main singers was definitely Ulla Paakkunainen. Not only did she sing
well, but I adored her expressive performance. Excellent work!
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