The White Rose in the Helsinki Music Centre, Sonore stage, the 25th of September, 2020

Even though I am not the greatest fan of modern operas, some of them make an impression and they are definitely worth seeing. The first concert performance of Kaisa Ranta’s doctorate, Udo Zimmermann’s opera “The White Rose” is one of such operas. The opera was directed by Ville Saukkonen, Kaisa Ranta sang the role of Sophie Scholl and the role of his brother was sung by Ville Rusanen.

The opera is based on a true story. The White Rose was a non-violent, anti-Nazi, anti-war movement that wrote and distributed pamphlets that criticized the Nazis. In 1943 the siblings were arrested and condemned to death for treason. The opera happens during their last night in prison and Wolfgang Willaschek’s libretto is based on the diary writings of Sophie and Hans Scholl and tells about their memories and thoughts.

Kaisa Ranta’s soprano fitted very well to the role of Sophie. Though, baritone Ville Rusanen was even better as Hans Scholl, despite the fact that the role is actually meant for a tenor. The accompaniment was handled by Pasi Helin (piano) and Marko Valtonen (accordion). The instruments may sound a bit unusual for an opera, but they fitted Zimmermann’s music excellently. And in the hands of professional musicians their sound varied from thunderous to whispering, creating a beautiful web of emotions.

I also need to praise the director Ville Saukkonen. The opera was in a way rather minimalistic, but impressive. The overall experience was at times downright hypnotic and even though the opera isn’t really the easiest possible to understand and the theme is not light, it is absolutely worth seeing.

In my opinion Titus Torniainen, the light designer, was also one of the stars of the evening. With his lights he created to the otherwise almost dark and empty stage (the set consisted of two chairs, blankets and metal plates) prison cells and whole lives with memories. Since the opera did not have any projected texting and in the dark it was impossible to read the libretto, Torniainen’s lights helped the audience to understand the themes of each episode.