The Ostrobothnians

The Ostrobothnians
Opera by Leevi Madetoja
The composer, c. 1920s
Native title	Pohjalaisia
Librettist	Leevi Madetoja
Language	Finnish
Based on	"Pohjalaisia" by Artturi Järviluoma
Premiere	25 October 1924 (1924-10-25) Finnish National Opera, Helsinki

The Ostrobothnians (in Finnish: Pohjalaisia; occasionally translated to English as The Bothnians), Op. 45, is a verismo opera in three acts by the Finnish composer Leevi Madetoja, who wrote the piece from 1917 to 1924. The libretto, also by Madetoja, is based upon a 1913 Finnish play by the same name, the authorship of which is disputed (but nonetheless is attributed commonly to Artturi Järviluoma, the play's publisher). The story, variously comedic and tragic, takes place around 1850 in the historical Finnish province of Ostrobothnia; it features two romantic relationships—the first, between Antti, a farmer who has been arrested for stabbing a neighbor, and his newly-pious fiancée, Maija; the second, between the brave farmer, Jussi, and a servant girl at his father's freehold farm, Liisa—and a central conflict between the farm community and a brutal, oppressive sheriff, who uses his whip to tame his subjects.

On 25 October 1924, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra premiered the opera at the Finnish National Opera under the baton of Tauno Hannikainen. The critics and the audience received the performance enthusiastically, immediately elevating the work to the (informal) status of "national opera". Working in its favor was the score's use of well-known Finnish folk melodies and the libretto's focus on freedom from oppression and self-determination, the allegorical qualities of which were particularly salient to a country that had won recently its independence from Russia. This inaugural production ran until November 1940, for a total of 90 performances, making it the greatest success of Madetoja's career; separate productions were also staged during the composer's lifetime in Germany (1926), Sweden (1927, 1930), and Denmark (1938). Today, The Ostrobothnians is widely recognized as Finland's first significant, homegrown contribution to the genre and remains a stalwart of its operatic repertoire.

The work is also well known in its abridged form, a five-movement suite for orchestra that Madetoja excerpted from Acts I and II of the (then-unfinished) stage production's score and which Robert Kajanus premiered to acclaim in Bergen, Norway on 8 March 1923. The most famous number is Vangin laulu (Prisoner's Song), for which Madetoja set the popular Ostrobothnian folk song, Tuuli se taivutti koivun larvan (The Wind Bent the Birch); in addition to being the prelude to Act I of the opera, the melody also serves as its key leitmotif.