Press Releases
Opera “Rockland” Is for Everyone
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Rehearsals are intensifying for the July 15 and July 17 premiere performances of the opera “Rockland.” A Pine Mountain Music Festival production, this new opera, with a cast of nearly 50 and an orchestra of over 40, will play to crowds at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts in Houghton.
The principal singers and chorus have been rehearsing for the last three weeks, and now the orchestra has been added to the mix. After one recent rehearsal, a PMMF staff person said, “I knew the principal singers would be well prepared, but I was unexpectedly blown away by the quality of the chorus – what glorious sound!” The chorus is composed of local singers plus a number of undergraduates from Concordia College and University of Michigan.
The opera is based on actual events in the town of Rockland, Ontonagon County, in 1906 when about 100 Finnish miners went on strike, and two of them were shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies. Peter Van Pelt, PMMF executive director, commented, “There is so much in this opera that is both real and symbolic. The heart of the story is literally true, but in a broader sense the opera speaks of the entire history of the U.P. and its mining heritage and different ethnic stories. It’s powerful.”
Tickets for the opera are selling well, Van Pelt reported, but there are still seats available. “This opera is for everyone,” he said. “Opera is another way of telling a story, like a book or a movie or a stage play, but with opera you get the thrill of hearing great music and well-trained opera voices, and that is something that everyone can appreciate.”
The July 15 and 17 performances are the “New World Premiere.” Last month, the “Old World Premiere” of “Rockland” took place in Nivala, Finland. The audiences there felt connected to the opera because many had ancestors who had emigrated to Michigan around a century ago. The idea of the opera came from a first-hand account of the 1906 events written by a Finn in Rockland named Alfred Laakso, and his descendants will be on hand for a reception after the July 17 performance.
Tickets for “Rockland” are available from the Rozsa Center box office, 877-746-3999, or at the door if space permits. The box office is currently operating out of the Student Development Complex at the top of MacInnes Drive in Houghton.
Pine Mountain Music Festival presents a season of opera and classical music each June-July in the Dickinson County area, the Marquette area, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and other towns in the Upper Peninsula. Visit the web at http://www.pmmf.org or call 888-309-7861 for more information.
Special Free Events Planned to Support “Rockland” Opera
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Pine Mountain Music Festival has announced several special events to support the premiere of the new opera “Rockland.” All are free of charge. Most are at the Jutila Center, 200 Michigan Street in Hancock.
On Tuesday July 12, at 5:00 pm, Carl Rahkonen, the 2010-2011 Finlandia Foundation National Lecturer of the Year, an ethnomusicologist and professor and music librarian at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, will present a program entitled “The Finnish American Musical Journey: From Rune Singing to the Rockland Opera.” He will demonstrate a number of different instruments. This event is co-sponsored by the Copper Country Finlandia Foundation chapter.
On Wednesday July 13, at 5:00 pm, there will be a symposium on commissioning new music, with a panel composed of John and Pauline Kiltinen, Jukka Linkola, Esa Ruuttunen and Peter Van Pelt. This event will be held at Portage Lake United Church in Houghton. The Kiltinens, of Marquette, have been ardent supporters of “Rockland” from the beginning. Linkola is the Finnish composer of “Rockland” and numerous other musical works. Ruuttunen is a well-known baritone who will sing in “Rockland” and is artistic director of the Jokilaakso Music Foundation in Finland which produced the Old World Premiere of the opera. Van Pelt is executive director of Pine Mountain Music Festival.
On Thursday July 14, at 5:00 pm, Larry Lankton, professor of history at Michigan Technological University and author of several books and articles on the area, will speak on “History and Conditions of the Mining Industry in the Copper Country in the Early 1900s.” Lankton is well-known as a popular lecturer on historical topics.
On Saturday July 16, at 7:00 pm, Arnold Alanen, the 2009-2010 Finlandia Foundation National Lecturer of the Year and professor emeritus of landscape architecture at University of Wisconsin-Madison, will speak on “Finnish Impact on the Cultural Landscape in North America.” His talk will be illustrated with numerous slides and will give special attention to Rockland.
Besides these free events, the Ameriikan Poijat (Boys of America), a brass septet from Minnesota, will present a 7:00 pm concert on July 14 at the Calumet Theatre, followed by dancing in the ballroom. Tickets for this event are $15 (or $10 for students and children). Andy Hill, resident of Wakefield and grandson of Alfred Laakso on whose first-hand account the opera “Rockland” is based, will be narrator for this concert.
The concluding event in the PMMF 2011 season will be the New World Premiere of the opera “Rockland” at the Rozsa Center in Houghton on July 15 at 7:30 p.m. and on July 17 at 3:00 p.m. Marianne Wargelin of Minneapolis, who attended the Old World Premiere of the opera in Nivala, Finland, on June 9, wrote that opera-goers “…will recognize the themes. ‘Rockland’ is the story of ‘Pajama Game,’ where workers confront the owners; it’s the story of ‘West Side Story,’ where an immigrant group tries to find its way in America; it’s the story of ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ where a community works to come to terms with its traditions and its future.”
Pine Mountain Music Festival presents a season of opera and classical music each June-July in the Dickinson County area, the Marquette area, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and other towns in the Upper Peninsula. Visit the web at http://www.pmmf.org or call 888-309-7861 for more information. Tickets are available through the Rozsa Center box office, telephone 877-746-3999 or at the door if space permits.
“Ameriikan Poijat” Brass Septet to Play
Friday, June 24, 2011
Pine Mountain Music Festival will present three appearances by Ameriikan Poijat, a Finnish-American brass septet based in Minnesota. The first will be at Duluth Congregational Church in Duluth MN on July 11. The second will be at historic Ironwood Theatre in Ironwood MI on July 12. Both of these performances will be at 7:30 p.m. CDT.
The third performance will be at the Calumet Theatre on July 14 at 7:00 p.m., followed by dancing in the Calumet Theatre Ballroom.
Ameriikan Poijat (Boys of America) was founded in 1990 and enjoys a widespread reputation for exciting music-making. Their repertoire is extensive, specializing in Finnish composers but also including a variety of others and encompassing a variety of musical styles. Paul Niemisto, leader of Ameriikan Poijat, says, “The Finnish bras septet repertoire is meaningful ethnic art, and has an inherent musicality that is attractive to many listeners.”
The ensemble has performed in places as far apart as Finland and Canada and as distinctive as a Wisconsin cow pasture, a Florida beach, in a barn, and at Finnish border defense installations. For the PMMF audiences, they will premiere three new works, including the “Rockland Fanfare” by Jukka Linkola, composer of the new opera “Rockland.”
Tickets for Ameriikan Poijat concerts are $15 each, or $10 for students and children. For the Duluth performance, tickets are available only at the door. For the other performances, tickets are available from the Rozsa Center box office, 877-746-3999, or at the door if space permits.
The concluding event in the PMMF 2011 season will be the New World Premiere of the new opera “Rockland” at the Rozsa Center in Houghton on July 15 at 7:30 p.m. and on July 17 at 3:00 p.m. Peter Van Pelt, one of several PMMF people who attended the Old World Premiere of the opera in Nivala, Finland, on June 9, said, “It was a great success. We all loved the music, and it made a terrific opera, all based on U.P. history. We have a winner!”
Pine Mountain Music Festival presents a season of opera and classical music each June-July in the Dickinson County area, the Marquette area, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and other towns in the Upper Peninsula. Visit the web at http://www.pmmf.org or call 888-309-7861 for more information. Tickets are available through the Rozsa Center box office, telephone 877-746-3999 or at the door if space permits.