Kullervo (1988)

Now whilst this piece was initially staged in quick succession in Helsinki and Los Angeles and with some considerable success, apart from some performances in Lubeck (more on that later), it had disappeared from sight. That’s a great pity since Bern demonstrated what a superbly gripping piece of music drama Kullervo is in a tense and atmospheric production by Dieter Kaegi. Kullervo follows a similar path to Sibelius’ eponymous symphony which itself brought the epic verse drama Kalevala to international attention.

Using Aleksis Kivi’s stage dramatization, itself taken from Elias Lönnrott’s 19th Century gathering and publication of the ancient sagas as his source, Sallinen has fashioned his own libretto focusing on the violent and doom-laden Kullervo as his anti-hero. It’s certainly not a happy tale – Kullervo remains a misunderstood outsider throughout his misadventures culminating in a suicidal leap into flames, but not before waging spectacular and equally violent revenge on his supposed enemies. Although it is in fact, difficult to sympathise with any of the characters in this saga of inter-clan vengeance and societal ostracism, Sallinen makes superbly fluent music-drama from his material and like so many of his countrymen proves that Finnish is a particularly poetic language when sung.

Similarly the chorus excelled themselves in their complex passage-work. All round, and in particular assembling an entirely Finnish-speaking cast, this was an unexpectedly inspiring and satisfying event.

There is hardly a composer who represents the musical creations of a land as completely as Aulis Sallinen does those of Finland.

Sallinen believes in the power of music, that it makes the cruelty of the world more bearable. His music has endurance and lives from strong contrasts. Dominant, bass-heavy string sounds stand opposed to wildly expressive wind passages; soft string movements to hard rhythmic sections. The Bern Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Heinz Drewanz, gives this expressiveness a vivid sound language. That the practiced opera ear runs into some old acquaintances is characteristic of a post-modern opera language exhausted by the sum total of experiences during the development of the 20th century.

But Sallinen is a master in the treatment of language. Kullervo’s intensely expressive arioso, his father’s speech song, or the blind singer’s song style, testify to a well thought-out stage language.

Sallinen’s opera displays an original and new perspective in the wide European opera scene.

This is an opera that can get under the skin; throughout a sort of combination of international theatre and socially critical folk theatre, brutal and contemporary, as myths often are.

Sallinen exerts a compelling, almost eerie, influence with a strictly functional music that serves only the drama and its intensification. Quite a bit seems to be familiar from opera history; style is used as a means of expression for designating emotional content. There are the deep basses and the timpani of a percussion ensemble placed behind the stage, which create the drama and deadly atmosphere. There is the sharp cluster, reminiscent of Alban Berg’s “Lulu”, which marks the murder of the blacksmith’s young wife. There are echoes of Finnish folk music, of church and film music.

On Monday, University College Opera gave the British Premiere of Sallinen's hugely impressive opera of 1992, and coincidentally celebrated the company's 50th anniversary. Kullervo may sound "easy" on a Darmstadt avant-garde scale: the choral writing has a Prokofiev-like immediacy, the vocal lines are rewardingly singable, the piquant orchestration never covers the voices…The action…underlines the universailty of myth: the eponymous hero echoes Wagner's Siegmund and everyone's Orestes and Oedipus. Like the Oresteia, it presents an endless cycle of revenge, and all within the family. But Sallinen doesn't present it in a simple, linear way…Lovely Nordic gloom.

…his ability to create atmosphere and delineate character is masterly. In Kullervo the music ranges from ferociously combatitive to tenderly loving. Sallinen uses the chorus to great effect, with verses sung from the Kalevala, sometimes commenting, sometimes taking part in the action… The audience gave the composer a standing ovation.

... potently modern and tinglingly dramatic ... the power accrues unremittingly.

Kullervo unites the disparate strands of Sallinen's previous operas into a dramatic and musical synthesis that perhaps even surpasses his previous output. Indeed, it would be tempting to view it as his masterpiece were he not likely enough to produce another still better in the future.

His is an unmistakably 'northern' voice whose orchestral palette evokes inclement weathers and stark, wind-beaten landscapes, but it also has a lyrical heart of quite unashamed lushness and melodic opulence.

... the most potent new theatre music I've heard for a long while ... Kullervo is an extraordinary and major work.

... a towering musical experience ...

... one of the most eloquent scores of recent years ...