Still
Saturday the 5th of April. Tonight was finally the premiere of the musical
theatre show “Bus number 13” at Tampere Hall! As always I arrived in the very
last minute, because I was at the conducting course on the other side of
Tampere until 18.30, but made it just on time anyway, as always!
I came to think of that I haven’t written what the show is about! Well, I will tell you: It’s about everything and nothing. It’s a bit like a theme with variations. So that means, there is a very simple main story that then is told in very many different ways and from different perspectives. The text is called “Exercises in Style” and is written by the Frenchman Raymond Quineau. We of course used the Finnish translation by Pentti Salmenranta, and a very good translation it is! The story is very simple: “When I got on the bus this morning there was a young man with a long throat and a ugly hat on the bus. He started shouting at a gentleman that he was on purpose stepping on his feet every time the bus stoped. The gentleman didn’t react so the young man went embarrassed to the back of the bus and sat down on a free seat. A few hours later I happened to see this same young man in front of the railway station. He was accompanied by a friend, who recommended him to lift up the highest button on his jacket.” So this story is told in many different ways.
I came to think of that I haven’t written what the show is about! Well, I will tell you: It’s about everything and nothing. It’s a bit like a theme with variations. So that means, there is a very simple main story that then is told in very many different ways and from different perspectives. The text is called “Exercises in Style” and is written by the Frenchman Raymond Quineau. We of course used the Finnish translation by Pentti Salmenranta, and a very good translation it is! The story is very simple: “When I got on the bus this morning there was a young man with a long throat and a ugly hat on the bus. He started shouting at a gentleman that he was on purpose stepping on his feet every time the bus stoped. The gentleman didn’t react so the young man went embarrassed to the back of the bus and sat down on a free seat. A few hours later I happened to see this same young man in front of the railway station. He was accompanied by a friend, who recommended him to lift up the highest button on his jacket.” So this story is told in many different ways.
I had
chosen to compose five different versions of it. Vapaa mitta that means “Free measure” was a short poem (with free
measures as the name says). I made it into a duo between a solo alto singer and
a baryton saxophone. Erottelua means “Separation”
and was quite a long text explaining first in one phrase how things are, then
in the next phrase how things are NOT. But in the end the director made the
piece into a wet dream… The director interpretation worked really well and was
very funny but good! Anglismeja means
“Anglicisms” and was basically Finnish with very many English words put in
between. (I chose this text because that is the way I speak sometimes when I’m
tired, haha!) Sonetti was quite a long poem in “Sonnet”
measure which I chose to make into a “Shostakovich” influenced parody. Last
(but not least) I did Puheen osat which
could be translated “Parts of speech”. I did it into a 3 voiced choir song. For
seing pictures of the show go to my older blog post “Pre-Premiere of Bus Number 13” or here.
The premiere went really well as well! My mother and father had driven up from Helsinki (200 km) for seeing the show tonight as well as tomorrow’s premiere of Dagbok, and I was very happy they came! Also my German friend Natalja Pfeifer from church, who doesn’t really speak Finnish, came anyway to the show and enjoyed it!
The premiere went really well as well! My mother and father had driven up from Helsinki (200 km) for seeing the show tonight as well as tomorrow’s premiere of Dagbok, and I was very happy they came! Also my German friend Natalja Pfeifer from church, who doesn’t really speak Finnish, came anyway to the show and enjoyed it!
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| Pouring up the sparkling wine. Premiere of Bus number 13 on the 5.4.2014. ©C.Damström |
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| Our clarinetist Andreas Heino, violin player Heidi-Annina Nikkilä and singer Meerika Ahqvist. Premiere of Bus number 13 on the 5.4.2014. ©C.Damström |
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| Premiere of Bus number 13 on the 5.4.2014. ©C.Damström |
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| Composer Matti Carter, singers Alina Lehti and Meerika Ahqvist and composer Matilda Seppälä Premiere of Bus number 13 on the 5.4.2014. ©C.Damström |
After the
premiere we had a Premiere-shindig right there where we were in the Studio of
Tampere Hall and it was really fun! Because we had such a low budjet for the
party we had just ordered lots of pizza. Luckily there was also some Indian
take away for us vegans! The director Auvo Vihro and the instructing teacher Hannu Pohjannoro held nice thank you speeches, and so did also I and a few
others. I thanked the musicans and singers for their open-minded and positive approach
to new music and for putting their souls into our music. I also thanked Vihro
for the great directing, without nothing would have worked, and I thanked
Pohjannoro for organizing something like this and giving us student such a
great opportunity!
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| Premiere of Bus number 13 on the 5.4.2014. ©C.Damström |
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| Instructing teacher Hannu Pohjannoro. Premiere of Bus number 13 on the 5.4.2014. ©C.Damström |
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| Director Auvo Vihro Premiere of Bus number 13 on the 5.4.2014. ©C.Damström |
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| Pianist Jasper Koekoek and cellist Anni Härkönen. Premiere of Bus number 13 on the 5.4.2014. ©C.Damström |
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| Contrabassist and composer Roope Mäenpää. Premiere of Bus number 13 on the 5.4.2014. ©C.Damström |
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| We had quite a lot of pizza... Premiere of Bus number 13 on the 5.4.2014. ©C.Damström |
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| We were given roses! Premiere of Bus number 13 on the 5.4.2014. ©C.Damström |
At around
12 AM we left the building because the guard wanted to go home. Many people
went home, but a few of us continued to the club Ruma. For some reason most of
us who didn’t go home at this point had
had a bit too much of the sparking wine at the premiere-shindig, so we didn’t
stay long. For once in my life I was sensible enough and noticed it was time to
go home although it only was 2 AM…
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