The students of the Sibelius Academy intended to perform two short operas during one evening, but because of bouts of illness they were only able to perform Gioachino Rossini’s “La Gazzetta” (The Newspaper) and Gaetano Donizetti’s “Il Campanello” (Night Bell) was left out. Fortunately I had seen ”The Nightbell” already once in Budapest, so I was happy that if one opera had to be cancelled, it at least was an opera that I had seen before.
”The
Newspaper” is a story about an ambitious father, who offers his daughter for
marriage in the newspaper. Sadly though, the daughter is already in love with
another man, whom the father does not approve. There is also another father in
the opera, who also has a daughter in the marriageable age with whom another
man falls in love at first sight. Then, of course, the couples and fathers muck
around, but in the end the correct people get each other.
I have to
admit that the opera wasn’t in my opinion Rossini’s best, but visually it was
quite nice. Taina Relander’s costume design was made of lovely bright colours
and the simple ”tables and chairs” set design worked together with them
successfully.
The
soloists managed in their roles quite well, but I did not think any of them was
more to my taste than the others. Perhaps the reason was a pretty uninteresting
story, but on one level the performance was lifeless. I do not want to blame
the performers for the fact that it is hard to get a piece to shine if the
story is full of clichés. The opera
just wasn’t very memorable.
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