Review: Cherbourgin sateenvarjot
First love and divorce in Cherbourg
The young couple of the Cherbourg umbrella, Riku Pelo (left) and Maija Rissanen (right), have radiance. Ritva Jalonen, on the other hand, brings out the mother’s emotions well.
The Helsinki City Theatre’s Cherbourg Umbrellas is a fresh continental exception to the selection of musicals dominated by Anglo-American material. It’s genuinely romantic, but not sentimental at all. The longing for it is not directed at the person, the individual as such, but is an inevitable part of life as it is seen in the work.
The longing that the viewer experiences by the umbrellas of Cherbourg does not arise from identification with the loss of the protagonist or characters, but from the entire work’s view of the transience of everything, the transience of life. Everything that is now great and immeasurable will soon be a thing of the past. You can and should dream about the future, but you can only live here and now.
Nor is there an eternal love that alone can provide the keys to happiness. Instead, there is a person who lives, adapts, and is able to experience happiness as long as the circumstances are right.
Stretching the interpretation to the extreme, one could even argue that The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is an anti-consumerist musical, because by denying a single blissful true love, it also denies an inexhaustible, unsatisfied desire, or lack, the endless remedy of which is one of the most important drivers of the consumer market.
Legrand
defrost
The story of the film, written and directed by Jacques Demy and composed by Michel Legrand, would be impossible as a drama in itself. Young lovers who are separated by life, and who marry – apparently happily, at least nothing in the plot suggests the opposite – to another man and another woman. An everyday small-town incident that tells about the continuation of life, not its stagnation. There are happy moments and unhappy moments, but they still follow each other steadfastly and uniformly in size like pearls on a ribbon.
What made the film special in 1964 was that it was composed through. An umbrella shop girl and a car repair shop boy agree on their date by singing, and even the most mundane remarks are accompanied by Legrand’s softly flowing, melodic light jazz. It is the strongest expression of the wistful, melancholic tone of the narrative.
When brought to the stage, the film’s wild idea of composing through an everyday story loses its effect a little, as theatre already naturally and necessarily separates the story into the realm of aesthetic stylization more obviously than film. On stage, the steady flow of the narrative also creates a small problem, as especially in the beginning, the plot does not stop anywhere for a sense of drama to emerge, but recycles people, places, situations and events into view with a continuous feed.
However, the performance, directed by Kurt Nuotio, has decided to let go of the flow instead of trying to go against it. The elements on wheels and the furniture moved by the dances give the stage an impression of lightness that is in harmony with Legrand’s music. Its enjoyable sound is provided by an orchestra conducted by Esa Helasvuo.
Modesty
Glory
Umbrellas of Cherbourg has probably not been a very heavy investment for the Helsinki City Theatre on a musical scale. The stage of the Alexander Theatre does not require the grandeur that the theatre’s own large stage would have required. This time, the City Theatre has not resorted to well-known names as the main attractions of the performance. Modesty works to the advantage of the work.
The only downside could be considered the focus of the City Theatre’s musical repertoire on 1950s nostalgia, as Grease is followed by Cherbourg. In human images, they both represent, for example, a sharp division into separate female and male worlds.
The view of a small port town, staged by Oskari Torvinen in grey and delicate pastel shades, works well as a setting for the story. A great deal of credit for the power of the moods belongs to Jukka Kyllönen’s lights, which make visible what can be heard in the music at any given time and pick out – as if in close-ups – the central people and situations at any given time.
Sari Salmela’s costumes do a great job in characterising the characters, whose carefully thought-out pure colours express the essence of the characters in terms of the story.
The main roles are played by young filmmakers. In the premiere I saw on Friday, the role of Guy was sung by Riku Pelo, who rose from a substitute to an equal to another Guy, Sami Hokkanen, at the end of the rehearsals. The role of Geneva was played by Maija Rissanen on Friday, after Maria Ylipää was on Thursday.
Rissanen and Pelo are fresh and skilled in their roles. They have radiance and the ability for light and strong musical expression. Ritva Jalonen’s wife Emery also forms a good pair with Rissanen, who plays her daughter, sings brightly and brings out the mother’s emotions well with small means.
Pirkko Uitto as the terminally ill Aunt Elise is bound to be a bit pathetic, but certainly a sympathetic role. Nicke Lignell as businessman Roland Cassard and Salli Ahola as Madeleine are also pleasant characters who are happy to be given love and happiness. The soft-voiced Markku Huhtamo is successfully responsible for all the mature male characters in the performance.
Jacques Demy – Michel Legrand: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Helsinki City Theatre, directed by Kurt Nuotio, conductor Esa Helasvuo, choreography by Anneli Rautiainen, set design by Osakari Torvinen, costumes by Sari Salmela, lighting design by Jukka Kyllönen, sound design by Jyrki Sandell.
Premieres at the Alexander Theatre on 3 and 4 October.