Review: Mestariluokka

THE MASTER CLASS IS A STRIKINGLY EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE

Artists as the dictator’s playthings

The masterclass is a masterful theatrical experience. Four men in Helsinki
On the big stage of the City Theatre, three
hours.
The year is 1948. Joseph Stalin has invited two composers to the Kremlin
to discuss the statement of the meeting of the Finnish Composers’ Union, which has already been
written and approved by Stalin, a sign that composers did not
haven’t seen it.
The composers, Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev , are suspicious, they
do not make music “like a folk song”, they are reproached for their musical
from chaos, formalism, everything that Stalin’s so-called “Socialist Party” did.
cultural expert Andrei Zdanov came up with the idea of blaming them.
The composers nervously enter the Kremlin hall, in the middle of which is
an out-of-tune old grand piano and Andrei Zdanov, who is already drunk. Stalin
appears from the toilet (the toilet plays an important role in the staging).
In the toilet, Stalin sings the church hymn that is part of the Good Friday vigil.
Stalin announces that he met old friends at dinner,
seminarians.
“No one is as genuine a friend as old friends,” Stalin
longing, but somehow the information peeps between the lines that “the old
“friends” may not be able to get home safely to Georgia – never.


Inside Teddy Stalin
is a feline beast


Lasse Pöysti has often said that the Master Class Stalin is his hardest
role. Maybe that’s the case. Pöysti is already 79 years old, just a major
Remembering is a feat. But he has succeeded in the old dictator’s
characterization.
Stalin seems teddy-bear-like and he is really tired. Fatigue
realization makes him irritable. Teddy-bear-like is just the surface, underneath it
There is a cat beast playing with prey.
The insulting and shaming of composers is done on his behalf by Andrei
Zdanov. Stalin only has to strike once, and then it’s the composers’
fate is clear, but he wants to play first. Playing with people is
dictators’ favorite pastime, it was also practiced by Urho Kekkonen, of course Stalin
with less power.

The master class is not only about Stalin’s court, the same could be done
happen in any country of total power. For some reason, dictators
love philistine art, the kind that has existed before.
The new always makes dictators afraid. The new pushes the old out of its way, and
It can also turn out badly for a dictator.


Let’s be liberated
with the power of vodka

The Masterclass is a cutting black comedy. David Pownall’s text is brilliant
and I think director Kurt Nuotio has gotten an unusually large amount out of it.
A lot of vodka is drunk in Stalin’s hall. Prokofiev tries at the beginning
To refuse liquor, but in the end he also drinks, afraid of his nervousness.
With liquor, the mood gradually changes, the composers become more encouraged, and
They throw lips that they will surely regret the next day.
Stalin is becoming more and more lenient, like a cat that allows itself to be scratched
but in the next moment you scratch your hand for blood.
Zdanov, an alcoholic, gets drunk and starts using foul language. Martti Suosalo’s
Zdanov is a foolish type, who in Stalin’s circles is called the Pianist,
because he can play Chopin better than average.
Zdanov was a multi-tasker. After coming from Finland at the head of the Control Commission
back to Moscow, he was left with the task of supervising culture, and that work he
with the energy of a dilettante musician.
Martti Suosalo’s boisterous manner of movement is irritating at times. Zdanov was
a person with a heart defect, he didn’t rage so much, even though he barked.
Zdanov died shortly after the master class.


Striving
but let’s submit


Asko Sarkola Shostakovichina is combative at first, and after drinking even
fierce, but of course he knows that he is submissive. He goes to the bathroom
psyching himself: “Don’t say anything, don’t get nervous”. Shostakovich
knows that he is a genius and an international celebrity,
name. He struggles.

Esko Roineen Prokofiev is a man of the past, under Stalin’s scolding
he must be very sorry that he didn’t stay in Paris, where he had
A star among stars. The longing for one’s homeland is sometimes destructive.
Prokofiev is older than Shostakovich, and his fear of death is
larger. He has a young mistress and he just wants to live, even though
Stalin thinks that a man will die at any moment. Prokofiev died the same
than Stalin.


Let’s compose,
or composing and crying One of the most beautiful scenes in the masterclass is the one where the whole group of gentlemen tries to
together composes a Georgian (Georgian) medieval poet
I wrote a bloody poem with a strange
motive.

Stalin wants to add his philosophical thoughts to the poem, and it is clear that
nothing comes of the hustle. After faithfully recording the entire event
Sergeant reels in a mess of compositions, Stalin gets furious in his eyes
tears.
The composition is not a group effort. A composer is a dictator in his own area, so
just like a poet. And only a few people have gifts.
The composition scene is comical, of course, but the audience understands its essence
horribleness. The applause at the premiere was in order.

The set design of the masterclass is elegant: a flamboyant room somewhere in the Kremlin,
grand piano, fireplace, liquor cabinet, record shelf and toilet, each in turn
I’m fine. Set designer Hannu Lindholm must have looked at pictures of the Kremlin.
The music uses compositions by both Shostakovich and Prokofiev,
except what Zdanov now plays by himself before the others come
counter-revolutionary, bourgeois acidified jazz.
The Masterclass is definitely a theatrical performance worth the price!