Pohjola, S.: Kaappi / Rakkaimpani [operas] (CD)

Release Date: 01/01/08

The opera My Dearestwas set in motion by a request from baritone Pekka Haahti. Having mulled over a couple ofnot very in

The opera My Dearestwas set in motion by a request from baritone Pekka Haahti. Having mulled over a couple ofnot very inspired ideas for a libretto, I suggested a text based on the correspondence between my grandparentsLyyli and Urho Leppihalme during the war years of 1 941 -1 944. I had been given the letters to read a few yearsbefore and had been impressed by their precise picture of the times and the powerful but restrained emotions they expressed. Then when I began to process the letters for a libretto, I found to my delight that I did not needto invent any dialogue myself. I just had to select.The husband is away fighting in the war and is worried about how his family is coping. His wife is runni ngthe farm and bringing up their little girls. They long to be with each other. Jealousy also raises its head. Themajor Russian offensive begins in summer 1944. Will the husband survive and wi ll he and his wife be reunited?The opera does not say. I composed My Dearest in the latter half of 2005, and in doing so sought to emulate the simple, nobl e style of the letters. As I progressed, I began to realise that My Dearest, both its text and its music, would form aninteresting contrast to The Closet. My Dearest is chamber music-like, The Closet orchestral. My Dearest proceeds insustained lines; Th e Closet is fitful and pri ckly. The unusual feature of the former is the accordion's leading rolein the orchestration. On the one hand it is an instrument naturally associated in the minds of Finns with thenation's past an d especially the Second World War. On the other hand it could be used to create a predominantlymournful and elegiac mood. Urho Leppihal me did return from the war to his family. He died in May 1983, when I was 18, and Lyylifollowed him six years later.Seppo Pohjola