KARVALAKKIOOPPERA (THE FUR HAT OPERA)

1–5 & 9-10 SEPTEMBER 2022

The “Karvalakkiooppera/ The Fur Hat Opera” by composer Tapio Tuomela tells the stories of the people who lost their livelihood with the damming of the Kemi river in the 1950s and following the subsequent political uproar.

Our in-house artistic partner Erik Söderblom directed the world premiere and a series of performances of Karvalakkiooppera.

𝔸 𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕡𝕖𝕠𝕡𝕝𝕖 𝕖𝕩𝕡𝕝𝕠𝕚𝕥𝕖𝕕

"The Fur Hat Opera lays bare the workings of the state and power and the fate of the little people and nature in it all. Setting the underlying tone of the work is the tragic decimation of the age-old salmon-fishing culture on the River Kemijoki.

Driving the narrative are absurd turns in a political thriller and a tale of exploitation in post-war Lapland that rivals a Greek tragedy. The opera brings to light a range of societal tensions: salmon-fishing farmers v. the state, urban v. rural, old ways v. blind belief in development, and nature v. economics."

Synopsis

After the Second World War, the Finnish state and the politicians in power made a special project of buying up and harnessing the rapids on the Kemijoki, replacing those lost with Karelia.

The story opens with a look at the fishing communities on the River Kemijoki that have spent decades trying to get compensation for the salmon lost to the dams. Finally, the men get together and decide to set out for Helsinki en masse to demand justice. Reino, a former salmon fisher, is too depressed to join the delegation. His wife, Eevi, peeved at her husband’s apathy, tells him he is so useless he should just walk out into the rapids. And this is what he does. But in the river Reino meets a water spirit – the last salmon, perhaps? – who appears to him in the shape of a young woman, Piija.

Full synopsis: https://karvalakkiooppera.fi/the-fur-hat-opera/

ROVANIEMI & HELSINKI

Photo: The Fur Hat Delegation from Lapland on the way to the Ministry of Justice in autumn 1979.

by Heikki Rissanen, courtesy of the archives of Lapin Kansa

In The Fur Hat Opera, the demise of the salmon-fishing culture along the River Kemijoki develops into an insightful, universal account of what might happen when an individual runs up against the state machine.  Politics in post-war Finland witnessed events whose nature no one wanted to see – and maybe still don’t – and which no one has ever acknowledged. The compensation claims of those who lost their livelihood – salmon – languished in the courts for 30 years, claims which welled up from the profound injustice and humiliation they suffered. When they had had enough, a ‘fur hat delegation’ gathered and headed for Helsinki to demand justice and moral rehabilitation. The opera’s solid basis in historical fact and its political timeliness make this unique theatrical production exceptionally interesting.

Erik Söderblom, director

Music: Tapio Tuomela

Libretto: Sami Parkkinen

Director: Erik Söderblom

Conductor: John Storgårds

Orchestra: Lapland Chamber Orchestra