Orpheus and Eurydice in the Helsinki Music Centre, the 30th of October, 2019

Christoph Willibald Gluck is one of the best known composers of baroque opera. He had already composed about 30 operas before he made his first so called reform opera “Orpheus and Eurydice”, where he left out the superfluous vocal virtuosity and the continuous repetition of a couple of lines for a longish aria, which are typical for baroque operas. Now this opera was performed in the Helsinki Music Centre as the last concert of the Magnus Lindberg Festival.  

Several opera composers have used the story of Orpheus and Eurydice in their works, so the story is well known. Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, dies and he goes to fetch her from the Underworld. To do that he must promise that he will not look at her until they are back on Earth. Of course, he has a look and Eurydice dies again. However, in Gluck’s version Amore brings her back to life and the couple can continue enjoying their married bliss.

I was familiar with Gluck’s traditional baroque opera, but it was great to hear from him such a different type of opera. Even though the stunning vocal decorations were missing, I liked the tones of the opera tremendously. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO) was playing in a smaller composition than usually, which was the correct way to do it, when we are talking about a baroque opera. When I have in the past few months heard some baroque operas accompanied by a baroque orchestra, it was interesting to hear how different a sound the modern instruments bring to the opera. RSO did well and conductor Fabio Biondi created with the musicians a soft and warm sound that, of course, was not a typical baroque sound, but in my opinion suited this opera quite well. I was especially happy about the big role of the harp (harpist Sivan Magen), that accompanied the aria of Orpheus; it was great to see a harp literally on the front stage (in this case it was physically in the middle of the orchestra instead of lurking around in the fringes as it usually does).

The soloists of the evening were world class. The smallish role of Amore was sung with her normal certainty by Tuuli Lindeberg. The main role of Orpheus was sung by mezzo-soprano Caitlin Hulcup, whose tone and consistent quality of her voice was stunningly beautiful. It would be nice to hear her in something else than a concert version, too. She was superb and I especially enjoyed the hit aria ”Che faró senza Euridice?”. But the absolute queen of the evening was Helena Juntunen as Eurydice. I am beginning to think more and more that she could sing furniture assembly instructions and still it would come alive in front of our eyes. Stellar singing and acting that stunned the audience.