The Breasts of Tiresias in the Alexander Theatre, the 19th of September, 2019

Francis Poulenc’s opera ”The Breasts of Tiresias” was performed for the first time in France after the Second World War in 1947 and its themes of the place of women and the so called correct number of children are still actual. The opera is based on Guillaume Apollinaire’s play from 1903, to which he added a more serious prolog during the First World War.  

The story of the opera is totally absurd, even though the themes have their more serious side. Thérèse has had enough of the restrictions of the life of a woman, changes to a man and leaves her husband. The husband states that if women will no longer make babies, men must and gives birth to over 40.000 children during one day. According to the husband children make him rich, but the gendarme announces that due to the big number of children citizens starve. In the end Thérèse returns home and everybody encourages people to make more children.  

Ville Saukkonen had managed to create on the stage of Alexander theatre an immensely funny and visually entertaining opera. The production was in my opinion as a whole really successful and the participants had obviously enjoyed creating the work. The opera was full of brilliant details. The dancer Oskari Kymäläinen as the baby was splendid; a talented dancer with expessive movements. The insightful visualization is by Joona Huotari and props by Julia Gavrilova and students and teachers of the local textile and fashion institute (Stadin ammatti ja -aikuisopiston Tekstiili ja -muotiala). Set and costume designs were really good and there were lots of interesting details. I, for example, giggled for a long time to the sports socks of the God.

Poulenc’s music in this – his first – opera is clearly different from his later operas (Dialogues of the Carmelites and La Vox Humaine). Music is full of lighter fragments like waltzes and polkas, though especially Thérèse also sings really tough classic parts. Joonas Rannila acts as the director of Chamber Orchestra Ariadne and singers from the Helsinki Philharmonic Choir provide the background singing. Both the orchestra and the choir were in excellent form at the first night performance. I definitely got the feeling they had had enough time for rehearsals.

Also the soloists almost without exception reached their best performances. The queen of the evening was naturally Anu Komsi who sang the role of Thérèse/Tiresias. Wonderful performance and she really suited her role as if it had been written to her. Juha Kotilainen as the God and Jaakko Kortekangas as the husband did great, reliable performances. Jouni Kokora’s gendarme was excellent and Aki Alamikkotervo had also got a role as the journalist/boy that suited him beautifully.

So, the opera was a complete success and I can absolutely recommend it to everybody. Since the opera is only an hour long, even those who are not huge opera fans can easily go and see it. The opera is sung in Finnish and the libretto is available in the programme leaflet, so it is easy to follow the story if you can Finnish. There are still two performances left (21^st  and 22^nd of September), so hurry to buy the tickets https://www.ticketmaster.fi/.