The Valkyrie in the Finnish National Opera, the 6th of September, 2022

When the Finnish National Opera some years ago informed that they will show the Ring by Richard Wagner, everybody assumed that all the four operas would be shown within two years, but then the virus decided otherwise. Only the first opera (The Rhinegold) was seen before the pandemic hit us and only now we go to see the second opera (The Valkyrie).

The Ring operas have pretty complex stories, which are difficult to explain in a relatively short way, but let us try. In ”The Valkyrie” Siegmund escapes to the house of Hunding, where Hunding’s wife Sieglinde offers him something to drink. Hunding returns and recognizes Siegmund as the man he has been hunting for and challenges him to a fight in the morning. During the night Sieglinde and Siegmund recognize each other as brother and sister and fall in love: Sieglinde was robbed years ago and forced to marry Hunding. They escape when Siegmund manages to draw out a sword that has been hit to a tree by a god, Wotan. Wotan wishes to protect Siegmund, but his wife Fricka wants to punish him for breaking a marriage. Wotan submits and forbids also his daughters, the valkyries to assist Siegmund. However, Brünnhilde is not able to stay passive and helps her half-brother. Despite that, Hunding kills Siegmund, but Brünnhilde manages to rescue the pregnant Sieglinde and helps her to flee. As a punishment Wotan condemns Brünnhilde to sleep in the middle of a wall of fire on a mountain top till a hero will rescue her.

If the previous opera (The Rheingold) by director Anna Kelo was a bit boring and conventional, “The Valkyrie” was a bit more lively. I only hope that this trend of improvement will follow to the next parts of the Ring. “The Valkyrie” is kind of happening during the World War II and stage and light design Mikki Kunttu made it visually rather good, even though there wasn’t that much stuff on the stage. The most impressive scene was – as it so often is – the ride of the valkyrie that begins the third act. Though, I must say that the final scene with the wheel of fire was rather awesone, too.

The stars of the night were Joachim Bäckström as Siegmund and Miina-Liisa Värelä as Sieglinde. Both their voices were beautiful, and they were credible as the sibling lovers. Tommi Hakala’s Wotan was a bit dry and I did not like it that much and I wasn’t that keen on Johanna Rusanen as Brünnhilde either.