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Cover: Leevi Madetoja – Juha - Opera in Six Tableaux

Leevi Madetoja

Juha - Opera in Six Tableaux

Jorma Hynninen, juha
Maija Lokka, marja
Eero Erkkilä, shemeikka
Finnish Radio Youth Choir
Finnish RSO
Jussi Jalas, conductor

ODE 714-2 · CD · May 1988

Buy / listen

Track listing

2 tracks · 98:59

CD 1

Leevi Madetoja

  1. Juha - Opera in Six Tableaux
  2. 1 Tableaux I-III 57:58

CD 2

Leevi Madetoja

  1. Juha - Opera in Six Tableaux
  2. 1 Tableaux IV-VI 41:01

About this recording

This double CD contains one of the great Finnish national operas, Juha, composed by Leevi Madetoja in 1934. The libretto by Aino Ackté and Leevi Madetoja is based on the novel of the same name by Juhani Aho. The realistic and psychological drama centres on a couple living in the eastern part of Finland, Juha and Marja, the latter of whom gets seduced by the wayfaring trader Shemeikka.

The recording was originally produced by the Finnish Broadcasting Company, TV 1 in 1977. Ondine released this digital remix in 1988.

The cast includes
Jorma Hynninen: Juha
Maija Lokka: Marja, Juha's young wife
Eero Erkkilä: Shemeikka, a prosperous Karelian peddler
Anita Välkki: Juha's mother
Margareta Haverinen: a hired girl on Juha's farm
Tapani Valtassari: the vicar
Merja Wirkkala: Shemeikka's summer sweetheart
Maaria Mestomäki: Maiden I
Kristina Haartti: Maiden II
Kai Airinen: Man I
Kalevi Olli: Man II

Features

2 CDs; booklet with liner notes and synopsis in English and Finnish, and the libretto in the original Finnish and in English

The artists

Jorma Hynninen

Baritone Jorma Hynninen is one of the most highly appreciated Finnish vocal artists of all time. His unprejudiced and profound approach to art has contributed not only to a renewal in the art of interpreting solo songs but also to the creation of a number of new contemporary operas. In Lied, he has concentrated on the song cycles of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf and the solo songs of Sibelius, Oskar Merikanto, Toivo Kuula and Yrjö Kilpinen. He has appeared at innumerable distinguished venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, the Musikverein, the Concertgebouw, Boston Symphony Hall, Chicago Symphony Hall and the festivals at Tanglewood, Ravinia and Salzburg.

Full biography

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