Juha (Merikanto)

Juha
by Aarre Merikanto
First page of the score.
Librettist	Aino Ackté
Language	Finnish
Based on	Juha by Juhani Aho
Premiere	28 October 1963 (1963-10-28) Lahti, Finland

Juha is a three-act opera by Aarre Merikanto, with a Finnish libretto by Aino Ackté based on the 1911 novel of the same name by Juhani Aho. Although completed by 1922, it was only finally staged at the music college in Lahti on 28 October 1963. The story is a drama of a love triangle: the older husband Juha, his young wife Marja, and her seducer the merchant Shemeikka. Set in the 1880s in Kainuu in northern Finland, the human tragedy is based around the harsh realities of a farming community and the clash of their lifestyle with the more worldly nomadic Karelians, represented by Shemeikka.

Ackté first offered the libretto to Sibelius, who, after two years, declined to set it, explaining in a letter to Ackté that he believed the text should be subservient to the “absolute music” of the score, and he felt unable to achieve that with what he called Aho’s “masterpiece”.

Juha was Merikanto's second opera, following Helena in 1912. Having composed Juha from 1919 to 1922, Merikanto submitted it to the board of the national opera in Helsinki who were worried by its modernity. As he had no response from them, Merikanto withdrew the work and did not compose any further operas.A “safer“ version was written by Leevi Madetoja and premiered at the Finnish National Opera in 1935. The third act of Merikanto's version was broadcast on 4 December 1957, the year before the composer’s death, and the entire opera on 3 December 1958.

After the Lahti première on 28 October 1963, Juha was accepted at the Finnish National Opera in 1967, leading to a recording for Finlandia, and a production at Savonlinna in 1971, revived the following year. A later production was toured to the Edinburgh Festival in 1987. The opera has also been seen in Hagen, Evanston and Essen. A new production was mounted at Helsinki Opera House in December 2011.