The Opera
Beyond -project has this autumn offered in the Finnish National Opera a very
popular work called “Laila”. It combines music and visuality to motion. “Laila”
was created by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Paula Vesala, Tuomas Norvio and Echo Collective
and in it every spectator affects the performance by moving around. Therefore,
every performance should be different. A noble aim, which is, of course, lost a
bit when most spectators usually see it only once.
“Laila” is
shown on the Alminsali stage of the National Opera, in a big bubble that can
fit six people. The people can walk freely within the bubble and images appear
on the walls/ceiling. The images are also reflected on the mirror floor of the
bubble. Sound material has been recorded using singers of the National Opera
and musicians of its orchestra. Paula Vesala and Miriam Hilpo are the voice of
Laila in the Finnish version (there are also Swedish and English versions
available).
There was a
great hype about “Laila” before the performances even started, but in my
opinion, it was not so revolutionary as marketed. There have been quite many
different types of interactive performances in the past few years, so that
Laila was not exactly groundbreaking. Don’t take me wrong, I did like it. The
visual images were in mostly quite nice and the music was also all in all
beautiful. It is definitely good that the National Opera also makes this kind
of performances and perhaps they even tempt more people to see also the
traditional operas.
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