Madetoja: "The Ostrobothnians" opera Saraste conducting the FRSO

[dhibbard]

I just finished enjoying this wonderful "live" work of Leevi Madetoja's opera.   Madetoja is such an Unsung composer.   I happened to find this in a recycled bookstore and it had been on my shelf for over a year, but due to the Covid19 emergency, I am finding that I now have the time  to get to those recordings.

Are there any other recordings of this opera on LP or CD?   I would be interested in comparing it to those.

Also, what is going on with Finlandia Records?   Since Warner bought them out, I'm now seeing some of the Finlandia recordings issued on Elatus budget label? 

Thanks

[CelesteCadenza]

Are there any other recordings of this opera on LP or CD?   I would be interested in comparing it to those.

I am unaware of another commercial release but a performance from the Finnish National Opera (Helsinki, 2010) was broadcast and off-the-air recordings have circulated. The cast:
Jaakko Kortekangas
Tove Aman
Jorma Silvasti
Riikka Rantanen
Maria Kettunen
Ilkka Hämäläinen
Finnish National Choir and Orchestra
Kari Tikka, conductor
Finnish National Opera (Helsinki) 4 December 2010

[Alan Howe]

Apparently there is an earlier recording also on Finlandia, conducted by Panula.

[tpaloj]

Sadly, at least to my knowledge there are no further recordings of the full opera besides those already mentioned here. There's a sort of video adaptation conducted by Leif Segerstam, on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmDBbPiNKeE

[Alan Howe]

Saraste's recording is very fine - wonderful orchestral playing, excellent singing, etc. The work itself is also atmospheric, full of variety and much better written for voices than certain of Madetoja's contemporaries that I could mention. However there's just one problem: despite its many beauties, it just doesn't have enough memorable melodic material. For that reason alone I can't see it ever establishing itself internationally. However, this recording - if you can get hold of a copy - makes as good a case for the work as one might conceive.

[Alan Howe]

...as a postscript, I've always thought that the only really memorable piece that Madetoja wrote was his 2nd Symphony - and the irony there is that its possibly his most Sibelian work.

[Jonathan]

I've always enjoyed the suite that Madetoja compiled from "The Ostrobothnians" - lots of good music there too.  I don't know how this fits into the opera though.

[M. Yaskovsky]

I've this one in my collection. I'm happy with it, never heard the Saraste recording https://www.amazon.com/Madetoja-Finnish-National-Opera-Orchestra/dp/B000ENPK1C

[Alan Howe]

What do you think of the opera?

[jdperdrix]

A performance ot Madetoja's "The Ostrobothnians" has been posted on arte.tv. It is from the National Opera of Finland under Kaapo Iljas (12 december 2024). It is watchable in France and in Germany, maybe elsewhere.
If anybody is interested, I can upload the video and the English subtitles (1.8 GBytes).

[Mark Thomas]

It's a very well made video of what seems to be be a powerful piece and is certainly available free to watch in the UK. Thanks for the link. However, I'm unsure of the copyright situation, so it's better not to post it at UC. Thanks again for the heads up.

[tpaloj]

I happened to be at one of the live performances of this run and, having previously only heard the work on record, it flowed well on stage and the choice of singers and stage design made a good impression. Chiefly Jussi Rusanen and Maria Turunen, with one or two of the side characters also, sang their roles with a lot of enthusiasm. Rusanen excelled above the rest of the cast in his role. It was nice to see that the set design was in no way distastefully done (as the worry these days can be), with a good balance of traditional and modern elements mixed in with the costumes and sets. Though my criticism in that area would be the constantly spinning stage in the 2nd act, which was a bit too distracting and drew attention from the splendid music in that act.

It's excellent that the video is made available, there really aren't too many recordings of the opera out there!