Opera no 96
Soloists
Pori sinfonietta and opera chorus
Sri Rasilanien
Before I started this project I knew nothing of this composer. He was born in Finland in 1809, coincidentally the year in which it ceased to be under Swedish control and became an autonomous part of Russia. Pacius was actually born in German but moved to Stockholm in his teens and then to Helsinki where he became an important figure in the development of Finnish music - indeed this opera is generally regarded as the true Finnish opera.
Pacius was obviously well acquainted with early romantic opera. The predominant influence here is Weber and the composers who followed in his wake, such as Marschner and Lortzing. But there are also some elements, particularly in the bigger ensembles, which suggest that he was also familiar with French opera. Until the third act I didn’t detected anything particularly Finnish about the work - but at the beginning of that act there are some quite extensive dance scenes with chorus which do seem deliberately folk-like in style and are obviously there to give some local colour. Whether that colour is actually Finnish is not something I can comment on - it does seem rather general purpose ‘ethnic’ music of the type which you find in a lot of operas of this period.
I thoroughly enjoyed the work - Pacius has a good sense of dramatic pacing and a melodic gift. It is not the greatest opera in the world but it is by no means second rate either. The more that I get into this project them more I realise that the difference between an opera being in the repertoire and it being totally forgotten can be wafer thin. I suspect that there are hundreds of operas out there which given a good performance and a sympathetic staging would stand up very well.
