An ensemble of musicians and singers from Finland was recently in Delhi to perform Savitri, an English chamber opera inspired by the Mahabharata. Bulbul Sharma reports.
“Opera, of course, is the great love of my life,” said Finnish opera singer Laura Pyrro, who was recently in the national capital for a performance of Savitri, a 1916 chamber opera inspired by the Mahabharata.
Savitri narrates the episode of Savitri and Satyavan from the Mahabharata. It was composed by the British musician Gustav Holst in 1909, and this was the first time it was performed in India, by an international ensemble of Finnish and Indian musicians.
Held at the Baha›i House of Worship, Information Centre Auditorium, Lotus Temple, on 29 March, the Delhi show also marked seven decades of diplomatic and cultural relations between India and Finland.
Finnish artists who were part of the Delhi show were Jouni Kokora (bass-baritone), Matias Haakana (tenor), and Tiina Korhonen (pianist). The opera also featured three solo singers, a female chorus of 16, one violin player, one sitar player and a pianist. Laura Pyrro, the soprano, played the role of Savitri; Matias Haakana played Satyavan.
Pyrro excels in many forms of music, from operetta, baroque and sacred music to modern musicals and cabarets. She spoke to Guardian 20 about how she prepared for her part in Savitri. “In Finland, I rehearsed the part by myself and with Finnish musicians. We performed this production during the summers of 2017 and 2018, but in Finnish. We rehearsed and memorised it in English for the performance in Delhi,” she said.
As a professional opera singer, she is used to performing musical pieces that are rooted in cultures different from hers. For Savitri, Laura read the entire story of Savitri. “The opera starts from the point where Death appears to collect Satyavan, but it was really good to know the whole story before this,” she told us.
The Finnish artistes collaborated with Indian musicians, from the Neemrana Foundation, for this show. So instruments like the sitar were added to the operatic score to foreground the “Indian themes” in the original composition, Laura explained.
Since the year 2000, she has made a total of 10 visits to this country and is quite familiar with Indian culture. Laura said, “I love the way many traditions are still preserved in the everyday life here.”
But how relevant is opera, as a form, in this day and age? Many consider this centuries-old form to be elitist and out of touch with reality. Besides, it has been further sidelined by the emergence of pop culture modes of entertainment like cinema and television.
So has opera lost its significance? Laura doesn’t think so. She asserted that opera culture is still quite strong in Europe. “New operas are composed and performed every year. Also in Finland, though we are a rather small country population-wise, we are creating new operas all the time,” she said.
For Tiina Korhonen, the pianist in Savitri, the more interesting aspects of this opera have to do with the philosophical ideas it is founded on. She said, “It is amazing how in order to save her husband, Savitri accepts death as a part of her life. Also, I found the female chorus a very beautiful way of looking at the world and the universe. My first reaction to the story was the amazement I felt at finding the music that is so beautiful and still very simple. There aren’t too many notes for me to play, yet every melody is important and very vivid.”
Korhonen isn’t familiar with Indian music but intends to work with Indian musicians in the near future. She said, “I have very little experience of Indian music and instruments, but so far it has been a very interesting and magical experience. I find the sitar very beautiful and it sounds so different from other instruments…”
Both Laura Pyrro and Tiina Korhonen have been performing together for the past 20 years now, and are extremely comfortable with each other’s style of music. As Korhonen said, “I have enjoyed a lot working with Laura… She is not only a very good friend of mine but is also a godmother to my son. It is so easy to make music with a person you have known for a long time.”
The opera’s tenor, Matias Haakana is on his first visit to India and is completely in love with the country’s culture and cuisine. “I have been deeply impressed by the diversity of Indian culture, Indian hospitality and the magnificent Indian food. We have visited a couple of famous tourist attractions in India, including the Taj Mahal, and it has been a completely different experience to see these great monuments in real life, compared to just seeing them in photographs. At the end of this week, I am looking forward to our trip to Goa,” he told Guardian 20.
When asked about his experience of playing Satyavan in the opera, Haakana answered, “It was very intriguing to be able to explore one of the most well-known chapters of the Mahabharata, as the epic remains the cornerstone of Indian tradition and philosophy.”
He is also a soloist at the Finnish National Opera, and he believes that much more needs to be done to popularise the opera form further. Government agencies, according to him, play a crucial role here. Also, composers and musicians ought to find ways to reach out to younger audiences.
Jouni Kokora, who sings bass and baritone in Savitri, is another veteran in the group. He has been performing for around 23 years now. The reason he chose to collaborate on this project has to do with Savitri’s instant appeal for audiences across cultures and generations. He said, “In Finland, many people find India alluring because of its exotic culture. This opera is essentially Western art music with an Indian twist.”