Between on the Alminsali stage of the Finnish National Opera, the 3rd of September, 2022

I have seen all operas composed by Kaija Saariaho and liked them, so when the Finnish National Opera marketed a production called ”Between” as an opera and one of the composers was Kaija Saariaho, of course I had to see it.

”Between” consisted of four fragments, out of which the first and last were composed by Kaija Saariaho (“Study for Life” and “Graal Théȃtre”). The two other fragments were “… through its darkness” by Matias Vestergård and “Peach” by Sebastian Hill. The director was  Saariaho’s son Aleksi Barrière.

I had assumed already based on the critique in the biggest Finnish newspaper (Helsingin Sanomat) that I probably would not understand anything about the work and I was right. The theme of the opera was being between some eras in life, but I did not actually understand what was between what in the performance; it was a bit too high flung for me.  

I liked best the fragment ”Study for Life”, but that may well be because it was the only fragment that contained a singer – soprano Tuuli Lindeberg. Even though the libretto of her singing made the theme no clearer to me, her beautiful voice made it pleasant to listen to. The actor, who was seen during the whole production, Thomas Kellner, was also good, but his acting was even more incomprehensible to me.