SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Directed by Vilppu Kiljunen

Sets by Sampo Pyhälä

Costumes by Piia Rinne and Noora Niinikoski

Lighting design by Kimmo Karjunen

 

Cast

 

Riccardo –

Renato – Hannu Niemelä

Amelia – Claire Rutter

Ulrica – Isabel Vera

Oscar – Dilbèr

Silvano – Markus Nieminen

Samuel – Jussi Merikanto

Tom – Hannu Forsberg

Judge – Juhani Suninen

The assistent of the Ulrica-show – Olavi Suominen

 

The Finnish National Opera Chorus and Orchestra / Alberto Holde-Garrido

 

“I was initially interested in the personality of Gutav III: a multitalented man who appreciated the arts but who was also an absolute monarch. Then I considered the tensions that arose from the original libretto and the fact that the regicide forced Verdi to relocate the action to Boston. As Barack Obama was conducting his presidential campaign at the same time, I began to think what might happen to him: look what happened to Lincoln or Kennedy or Martin Luther King. This highlighted the political dimension in Un ballo in maschera and the possibility to explore the blurring of private and public, which is a big problem in politics today.

 

Today’s TV world is full of programme formats where people reveal the most intimate details of their lives. All the scenes in Un ballo in maschera take place in different kinds of TV formats. The main characters try in vain to control the media and their image in it. More generally considered, life itself is something that no one can control.”

 

I couldn’t resist quoting Director Vilppu Kiljunen’s policy statement in the programme booklet. And it gives a good general picture of what this production is about. Without knowing practically anything about RAI’s programmes it is easy to draw parallels. The trailers that are projected on a wide screen during the prelude are flashy and between scenes there is a very ingratiating and seductively smiling female announcer. Parodic? Maybe not. Maybe this is what millions of televiewers encounter daily. The different settings also mirror present day media world. In this version of the opera there is no King Gustavus III of Sweden. No, here Riccardo is a media emperor (Berlusconi?), Ulrica runs her own TV show and in act III Renato and Amelia appear on Il Nido d’Amore, a ‘programme about the ups and downs of intimate relationships. The final scene is, naturally enough, a really spectacular masked ball, where the costume designers have revelled in colours and fanciful designs and the death of Riccardo is accompanied by showers of flashlight from the assembled paparazzi. And camera crews follow every step of the participants throughout the performance. Strange? Dragging a classic opera in the gutter? Director Kiljunen also had his doubts when, during the curtain calls, he put his hand behind his ear to find out if there were boos among the ovations. There were none. But of course any transportation of the action to a different time, a different environment, can be seen as violation of the original intentions, and maybe for a director who wants to give a political or moral statement concerning his own time it might be wiser to commission a brand new work conceived from the present with a musical language of the composer’s own time.

 

In this particular case the concept works surprisingly well, once one has accepted it. In spite of contrasted and rather laboured settings there is still a sense of unity. And the wonderful music survives. Alberto Hold-Garrido is a sure-footed Verdian and there can be no complaints concerning the choral and orchestral forces.

 

The solo singing is more variable. The Chilean tenor Giorgio Casciarri begins rather hesitantly but when we reach the second act and the wonderful duet with Amelia he has liberated himself from what may have been premiere nerves and has fine spinto ring to his top notes. Claire Rutter also grows through the performance and her two arias, Morrò in act III in particular, are true highlights. Hannu Niemilä has always been rather uneven and sometimes afflicted by an unpleasant vibrato. He has his moments of rough delivery here as well but by and large his is a powerful and committed performance. Isabel Vera as Ulrica sports a grand mezzo-soprano voice and, still at the outset of her professional life, she seems equipped to have an important career with the right coaching. Dilbèr, a great favourite with Finnish opera-goers, has retained her brilliance and lightness in the upper register and created a glittering Oscar. In the lower reaches, though, the voice seems to be weaker than before. As always she is an assured actor.

 

The conspirators Samuel and Tom are excellently sung by Jussi Merikanto and Hannu Forsberg, and Markus Nieminen almost steals the show in his short appearances as Silvano. Deep male voices are as always in good supply in Finland.

 

This is not the kind of production of Un ballo in maschera I would like to see repeatedly but it is undoubtedly thought-provoking. As always in Helsinki it is sung in the original language with surtitles in Finnish and English.

 

Göran Forsling