I have
several times before commented the unpleasant fact that big opera houses show
most of the time the same few operas that everybody has seen dozens of times.
That is why I am always excited, when somebody brings to stage something rarer.
Now the Helsinki Opera Society is showing in the Alexander Theatre Tauno
Pylkkänen’s opera “Mare and her son”, which is based on the story of Aino
Kallas. The opera is from 1945 and the last performance was in the very same
theater in 1953. At that time Alexander Theatre was the home of the Finnish
National Theatre and the question remains, why has this opera never been
performed in the “new” opera house?
The opera
tells about Mare, whose husband and six out of her seven sons have died in
battles. Now the last son (Imant) wants to lead a rebellion against the rulers.
To save the life of her son Mare betrays the rebels. The others are killed, but
Imant is only wounded. When he wakes up and realizes that his mother is the
traitor, he kills himself. Mare informs the families of the dead rebels that
she was the one who betrayed them and she is killed by the mob.
The music
of the opera was strong, expressive and full of emotions. Libretto was partly
in old fashioned language, but it did suit the direction. The director Ville
Saukkonen had placed the opera in the Baltic states during 1940 instead of the
time of the Teutonic Order, which as an idea was great, but in practice was at
some points a bit strange e.g. when the soldiers sang about Virgin Mary and
carried the portrait of Stalin.
This opera really hit me.
Strong story, stunning music and several good singers. This time the more senior singers shone
brightest on the stage. Esa Ruuttunen was created to sing the role of Mango and
Marjukka Airas as Mare made an impressive performance of the desperate mother. In
the end her voice became tired, but it could be seen as the collapse of the shattered
mother. Also Henri Tikkanen as the Commander
was good. A few upper
notes weren’t pure, but as a whole the performance was fine. I wonder how stunning
the opera would have been if the role of Imant had been sung by someone else than
Tero Halonen, whose voice was unfortunately not sufficient for the role. In the
end of the opera Imant has a very touching scene, which would in the hands of a
more suitable singer, most likely created some tears in the audience.
As so often
with Saukkonen also in this work there were some dancers involved. I did not
quite understand the role of Jaakko Hutchingsia as the Midwinter goat, but Jacob
Börlin and Lauri Peltonen did a superb dance performance during the feast scene
of the second act. To be so agile and
flexible! I did not
find in the programme leaflet the name of the choreographer, but if they had
done the choreography themselves, I can only way bravo!
The opera
has still three more performances, so I urge you to go and see this historical
performance. Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.fi.
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