Opera singer Päivi Nisula as the Medium
Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium is a two-act short opera about the Medium, her daughter and a mute boy servant, who stage spiritualist sessions for their clients. The piece will be directed by familiar movie and theatre actors Kari-Pekka Toivonen and Merja Larivaara.
The Medium short opera, composed by Menotti during the 1940s, is Päivi Nisula’s long-term dream of producing theatrical small-scale opera.
The Medium uses five singers and one dancer to tell the tragic story of the Medium, her daughter and of a mute servant boy. Madame Flora stages spiritualism sessions for her clients. During one session, Madame Flora feels a set of hands strangling her. The one-hour story between reality and the supernatural is sung in English. The small scale of the production will be attractive to both traditional opera audiences and fans of theatre and cinema.
In addition to the Finnish National Opera soprano Päivi Nisula, the soloists will include bass-baritone Tuomas Purso from Leipzig Opera and soprano Tiina Vahevaara, who has previously visited the national opera performances.
The Medium opera by Italian-American Gian Carlo Menotti (1911–2007) will be performed as part of the Capital of Culture programme in October 2011. The Saaristo-oopperayhdistys ry. association, led by Päivi Nisula, will perform its premiere production in the former Domino movie theatre (currently ML Media Liv) in cooperation with a prominent production team.
The visual appearance will be created by costume/set designer Pirjo Liiri-Majava and lighting designer Timo Alhanen from the TTT-Theatre in Tampere, Finland. Conductor/pianist Marko Autio and the Turku Ensemble Orchestra will be responsible for the music.
Signing trial in October 2010
One of the key principles of the Saaristo opera association operating in the town of Väståboland is to promote up-and-coming opera performers.
Therefore, one of the roles for the Medium will be cast based on a singing trial. The trial session for the part of Monica, the Medium’s daughter, will be organised in October 2010 and will be open to all students of opera singing in Finland.
The premiere production by the Saaristo-oopperayhdistys ry. association is a new move in the Turku opera community. The production will hopefully be followed by a continuum of small-scale operas as part of the cultural offering in the city.
In addition to the small-scale opera, the Saaristo opera association will organise an open discussion event after each performance regarding the performance theme. True to the Capital of Culture theme, the discussions will touch upon both the state of opera art and the general purpose of art in society.
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