6.9. WEDNESDAY SERIES 1 Helsinki Music Centre at 19.00 Hannu Lintu, conductor Violeta Urmana, soprano Mikhail Petrenko, bass Sergei Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, suite for orchestra 38 min 1. Montagues & Capulets 2. The Child Juliet 3. Minuet 4. Balcony Scene (Romeo and Juliet) 5. Death of Tybalt 6. Friar Laurence 7. Romeo at Juliet’s before Parting 8. Romeo at the Grave of Juliet INTERVAL 20 min Béla Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle, Op. 11 60 min Interval at about 19:50. The concert ends at about 21:20. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and online at yle.fi/areena The first half of the concert will be shown on Yle Teema on September 10 and on Yle TV 1 on September 16. The second half will be shown on Yle Teema on September 17 and Yle TV 1 on September 23. 1 SERGEI PROKOFIEV Prokofiev himself arranged three or- chestral suites of music from the ballet, (1891–1953): SUITE but others have done so relatively free- FROM THE BALLET ly and not one of the sets is more es- ROMEO AND JULIET tablished than the others. Today’s is just one selection. The suite begins with Montagues & Sergei Prokofiev was only 13 when, in Capulets, a powerful portrait of the fam- 1904, he entered the St. Petersburg ily feud. The Child Juliet presents a dear, Conservatory to study the piano and dreamy youngster whom no one could composition. He soon became famil- fail to love. In the Balcony Scene, Romeo iar in musical circles as an enfant terri- and Juliet declare their love, which is ble who questioned everything and who threatened by Juliet’s belligerent cousin sowed so many unconventional seeds in Tybalt. The situation gets out of hand his music that the Russian musical es- and Romeo kills Tybalt. His sentence is tablishment simply could not swallow banishment, and her elders decided to them. marry Juliet off to Paris, a young noble- No wonder he was only too happy to man, but Friar Laurence has a plot: Juliet say goodbye to Russia on departing for will drink a potion that will send her into the United States in spring 1918. His de- a death-like sleep. When she wakes up cision to leave had been hastened by in her grave, Romeo will sneak in and the Russian Revolution that left half carry her off. the country caught up in a civil war and The plan catastrophically fails. The all in all made conditions anything but news of the staged death never reach- stable. He spent most of his time away es Romeo, who on seeing his beloved living in Paris and various parts of the in the grave believes she is dead. In United States, with the occasional vis- despair, he poisons himself, and when it to the Soviet Union. By the time he Juliet awakes and sees this, she kills her- returned for good to his homeland, the self with his dagger. artistic curiosity of the previous dec- The families understand the depth ades had been replaced by the dictator- of the tragedy and decide to bury their ship of the proletariat. feud. Not surprisingly, a musical talent At round the time of his return, such as Sergei Prokofiev was able to use Prokofiev was working on his ballet it to create one of the most impressive Romeo and Juliet – a commission from ballet scores of all time. no less than the Kirov Ballet. It suited him down to the ground. Shakespeare’s tragedy has so many different charac- ters, situations and tensions that he was able to bring his full range of expression into play. 2 see what is in the second room. It hous- BÉLA BARTÓK es the castle’s armoury. (1881–1945): Although the next three rooms in BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE principle contain only good things (a treasure trove, a wonderful garden, and a window on Bluebeard’s vast kingdom), Béla Bartók put the finishing touches Judith is horrified, because in all of them to his opera Bluebeard’s Castle in 1911, she sees blood. She nevertheless wants at the age of 30. He entered it for two to see inside the last two rooms, though competitions, but with no success. In Bluebeard begs her to curb her curiosity. the second, it appears the music jury The sixth door opens on a lake of tears. did not even look at his score, for the She can already guess what will be in- drama jury had already rejected it. An side the last room: out step Bluebeard’s opera lasting only just over an hour and three wives dressed in crowns and requiring only two singers was not, said cloaks. Judith now realises the fate that the latter jury, a sufficiently interest- awaits her. Bluebeard met his first wife ing drama. This came as a bitter blow in the morning, the second in the day- to Bartók, who told his wife in a letter time, the third in the evening, and be- that he would never hear the opera in cause he met Judith in the night, she his lifetime. will now reign over all his nights. She But fortune is fickle, and in 1917, the follows the other wives into the seventh premiere of his ballet The Wooden Prince room; Bluebeard’s night will never end. got an enthusiastic reception and paved The orchestral sections give dramatic the way for Bluebeard’s Castle. As a con- meaning to the opening of each door. sequence, the opera was premiered, The squeaky minor-second motif heard with a few amendments, in May 1918 right after the Prologue accompanies and has become so popular that it is each stage of the opera. The orchestra- nowadays performed the world over. tion of the doors being unlocked is not, The fact that it works so well in a con- of course, random; the music always re- cert version has helped in this respect. flects what lies behind the doors. The The opera falls into eight sections. opening of the door affording a view of The characters are the Duke (bass) and the Duke’s kingdom is particularly im- Judith (soprano), who has abandoned pressive as the orchestra rises to a dizzy both her family and her betrothed. She C-major chord. Attached to the opening is in the castle because she has fallen of the last door, the encounter with the in love with the Duke. Fascinated by three former wives, is Bluebeard’s trag- the seven locked doors in the dark and ic arioso. gloomy castle, she wants to see what Bartók’s music is highly expressive lies behind them. Bluebeard is, howev- and for the most part gloomy, especially er, reluctant to show her. He grudgingly in the first half of the opera. But then it gives her the key, and the first door re- could hardly be anything else in view of veals a torture chamber. Judith wants to the topic. The slow movement describ- 3 ing the lake of tears is especially glum. tras. Recent engagements include Towards the end, the music becomes the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester more serene. Bluebeard’s Castle is hard Berlin, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, work for the soloists, since the hefty or- Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Seoul chestral writing demands great power Philharmonic Orchestra, and the and stamina. St Louis Symphony, Baltimore and Toronto Symphony orchestras, as well Programme notes by as three acclaimed European debuts: Osmo Tapio Räihälä translated Staatsorchester Stuttgart Opera, Radio- (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo Symphonieorchester Wien and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester. A regular in the pit, Lintu returns to the Savonlinna Opera Festival in July HANNU LINTU 2018 to conduct Verdi’s Otello – in 2017 he conducted Aulis Sallinen’s Kullervo The 2017/18 season marks Hannu at Savonlinna as well as Sibelius’s Lintu’s fifth year as Chief Conductor of Kullervo for the Finnish National Opera the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. and Ballet as part of their special col- A concert tour to Russia and a perfor- laborative project with director/chore- mance of Väinö Raitio’s Princess Cecilia ographer Tero Saarinen. Previous pro- at the Helsinki Festival – part of celebra- ductions with Finnish National Opera tions marking 100 years of Finnish in- include Parsifal, Carmen, Sallinen’s King dependence – were among last season’s Lear, and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in highlights, and on 6 December 2017 the spring 2016. Lintu has also worked with orchestra honours both its 90th anniver- Tampere Opera and Estonian National sary and 100-year-old Finland with pre- Opera. mieres of newly commissioned works by longtime FRSO collaborator Magnus Lindberg and Lotta Wennäkoski. Other forthcoming engagements include per- VIOLETA URMANA formances of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Beethoven’s Fidelio, and a concert Born in Lithuania, Violeta Urmana is one tour to Spain and Germany with cellist of the most highly sought-after singers Sol Gabetta. of dramatic German and Italian reper- The 2017/18 season sees Lintu return toire. At the very beginning of her ca- to the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony reer, she made a name for herself world- Orchestra, Washington’s National wide as a highly acclaimed Kundry in Symphony Orchestra, and the Dallas Wagner’s Parsifal and as Eboli in Verdi’s Symphony and Detroit Symphony or- Don Carlos. Recent assignments have chestras, among others. Lintu also included the title roles in Verdi’s Aida makes his debut with the Naples and Puccini’s Tosca, and Wagner’s Isolde Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony and Sieglinde. and Hiroshima Symphony orches- 4 Violeta Urmana is a regular guest at Minzhilkiev.