Baby Jane in the Alexander Theatre, the 25th of October, 2019

The opera group Skaala has in the last few years produced regularly new, non-traditional operas, that have been even using machine music. Their latest production Baby Jane is based on Sofi Oksanen’s novel by the same name. Libretto is by Essi Luttinen and Janne Lehmusvuo, music by compositor Markus Kärki.

The opera tells about the Girl (Essi Luttinen) who meets Piki (Tuuli Lindeberg) in the Helsinki nightlife. They are drawn to each other and start a relationship, which despite the beautiful beginning is doomed. The relationship is complicated by Piki’s ex-girlfriend Bossa, jealousy, bouts of depression, alcohol, lack of money. In the end the Girl sees no other escape but to kill Piki.

I liked the music of the opera. It came from a tape, so there were no musicians in the theatre. I usually like to hear live musicians, but to this opera the absence of musicians fitted. Even the voices of the singers were electronically enhanced, which I normally don’t like at all. But again, in this opera it was ok. In the critiques there have been complaints about too loud music. I am not sure if I sat in some kind of a blind spot when it came to sound or if my ears just were blocked, but I did not feel that the music was too loud.

The director Janne Lehmusvuo managed to create on stage an opera that breathed passion, was full of life and that you simply had to see to the bitter end. Tyra Therman’s costumes were absolutely perfect and expressed the characters beautifully: Luttinen’s Girl was dressed in girlie flowered dresses, Lindeberg’s Piki was wearing more masculine garments and Heinonen’s Bossa was wearing black like an avenging angel.  

All the singers (Luttinen, Lindeberg and Heinonen) made absolutely stunning performances. Not only did they sing well, but they also created believable, living characters. Luttinen was a young girl in love, jealous, obsessed. Lindeberg’s Piki was “the coolest lesbian in town”, who battled her own demons and in the wings, looking for her opportunity to win back Piki, was Heinonen’s Bossa. To follow the story of the Girl and Piki, who were so much in love in the beginning to the tragic end, was both tough and wonderful. Unfortunately, the theatre was half empty at least in the performance that I saw. This opera would definitely deserve a wider audience.