The Red Line

The Red Line (Punainen viiva) is an opera in two acts with music by Aulis Sallinen to a libretto by the composer, which premiered on 30 November 1978 at the Finnish National Opera.

Based on the 1909 novel Punainen viiva by Ilmari Kianto (1874-1970), the opera – like the novel – is set in 1907, a watershed year in Finnish history during which its first elections were held, leading eventually to Finnish independence in 1917.

Outside Finland, the opera was performed at several European opera houses, including Sadler's Wells Theatre, London in June 1979 and in Osnabrück and Dortmund in May 1985, as well as at the Metropolitan Opera of New York in 1983. It has been revived several times in Helsinki and was recorded in November 1979 by Finlandia. A DVD of Finnish National Opera's 2007 stage production conducted by Mikko Franck has been issued by Ondine.

North Finnish province of Kainuu; the croft of Topi and his family

It is late autumn; a bear, symbol of the threat of brutal nature, is heard nearby; it has carried off one of their sheep. As Topi promises to slay the bear, he argues with his wife, both feel trapped by their poor life and realise that they have barely any food remaining for the family. Topi believes that things will change for the better.

Topi dreams that he has gone to the village to ask for help for children, but, admonished by the vicar for not attending church, aid arrives too late and his children are dead. Topi awakes, terrified by his dream, but takes some birds to exchange for grain and sets off to the village. Riika regrets having called Topi names.

A pedlar enters, Simana Arhippaini from Karelia, tells the children riddles and sings a ballad, but cannot answer their serious questions. Topi returns and gets Kunilla to read to him from a socialist newspaper, and talks about ‘an election’, a possible way of release from their toil and poverty without understanding the importance of it.

New Year

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Wikipedia