Orpheus in the House of Nobility in Helsinki, the 13th of October, 2019

Finally - I had a chance to hear one of the first operas, Claudio Monteverdi’s “Orpheus” on stage, when the Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO) brought it to the House of Nobility in Helsinki. This opera has been shown a few times in the last few years in Helsinki, but I have always been busy with something else, so it was great to be able to fill this gap in my opera knowledge.  

So many composers have used the story of Orpheus and his wife Eurydice in their operas, that most opera lovers know it, but let’s have a short recap anyway. Orpheus is marrying the love of his life Eurydice. However, just after the wedding, she is bitten by a snake and dies. Orpheus goes to the Underworld to recover her. He manages to get a permission to do that, but only if he on the way back will not look back at Eurydice, who is following him. During the return trip Orpheus starts to doubt that Eurydice is really following him, turns to look at her and she has to return back to the Underworld. Orpheus is desperate, but his father Apollo appears and tells him, that he can join Eurydice in Heaven.

The opera was a joint production between FiBO and Vaasa Baroque festival. In the House of Nobility the production was not a fully staged opera, but a performance with some props and, of course, in costume.

Even thought the opera is from year 1607, the music of the opera is actually rather modern. It may sound funny, but at times I was thinking of a rock opera and metal music. Especially when the ferryman of the Underworld Charon is on the stage, the burring sound of the regal (a person who knows much more about music than I do, helped me in recognizing the instrument), was almost hypnotic together with the deep bass of Sampsa Vanhala, who was singing the role of Charon. It is almost unbelievable, how music after four hundred years can still sound contemporary!

A lot of the time only a few instruments were played at one time, which increased the effect of the music. I was also happy with the soloists. Orpheus, of course, had the most to sing and Leif Aruhn-Solén did well. I had looked forward to his song when meeting Charon and that definitely was the most spell-bounding moment of the opera. Also the ladies of the opera (Tuuli Lindeberg as Eurydice and Hope, Essi Luttinen as Silvia and Proserpine, Kajsa Dahlbäck as Music and Katariina Heikkilä as the Nymph) were really good.