Timo-Juhani Kyllönen has composed his new monologue opera ”Ilona irti” (Ilona on the loose) for the Organ Night & Aria Festival in Espoo. The libretto was written by author Leena Lehtolainen, whose first opera libretto this was. The soloist was soprano Aurora Marthens and she was accompanied by Jan-Paul Roozeman (piano), Rebecca Roozeman (violin) and Lauri Kankkunen (cello).
The theme of the opera was womanhood, integrity of body and
soul and love. The soloist sang about boundaries, the role of woman, essence of
love and in my opinion also of self-esteem and other wider issues.
First of all, I wish to praise the libretto by Leena Lehtolainen.
It was really good. Even if you are an author, it does not automatically mean
that you can write a good opera libretto, but this was one of the best ones
have heard lately in contemporary operas. It was incisive and she even played
with word meanings, without the text starting to sound banal.
Kyllönen’s music
fitted the text well and in my opinion he had used the tones of the different
instruments well. I am sure I did not even catch all the finer points of
the music, but I did like it.
Aurora Marthens did really well in her demanding role. I had
last heard her almost four years ago in her solo concert and in between both her
voice and her performing had improved immensely further, and based on this
opera it is definitely easy to understand why she has been chosen as a member
of the ensemble in the Vienna State Opera for the coming season. Astounding work! If you happen to bump into
this opera somewhere, I warmly recommend buying a ticket to it, since it is really
worth seeing.
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