Estonia Opera House
Tallinn
26/2/2025
Stuart Sweeney
This double bill – a ballet, Pulcinella, and an opera, L’Heure Espagnole – started life at the Opera Comique in Paris and has now found its way to Tallinn with the same sets and costumes, stage director, Guillaume Gallienne and choreographer, Clairemarie Osta.
Oscar Pouchoulin in Pulcinella
Photo: Rünno Lahesoo
Pulcinella is a Chaplinesque figure and initially we see him aimlessly wandering around the stage, taking delight in the day. Oscar Pouchoulin, one of the younger dancers in the company, immediately makes an impression with perfectly performed tours and jetés combined with a fluid, off balance motion to express the awkwardness of his character.
Two confident women appear, played by Ami Morita and Phillipa McCann, and take an interest in Pulcinella. They dazzle him with their seductive moves en pointe, and both dancers bring spirit to their roles. Pulcinella responds with vigorous steps. The girls take him by each arm and march him away.
Pulcinella’s fiancée, played by Ketlin Oja, appears and in a solo we are introduced to a gentle, affectionate woman. Oja expresses these ideas clearly in graceful movement. However, while Osta has created dynamic and sometimes innovative steps for most of the characters, the choreography for the fiancée is the most conventional.
Christiano Principato and Jan Trninič in Pulcinella
Photo: Rünno Lahesoo
The boyfriends of the two women appear and speed around the stage, exuding macho confidence. Cristiano Principato and Jan Trninič display excellent synchronisation in their jumps and spins. The two women return and partner their boyfriends. Affection soon turns to animosity over the women’s dallying with another man. Pulcinella returns and the boyfriends are in combative mood. Pouchoulin again portrays his character winningly with a mix of and beautifully executed steps alongside ungainly moves.
A loving duet between Pulcinella and his fiancée unfolds and benefits from the chemistry generated by Oja and Pouchoulin. Pulcinella attempts a reconciliation with the two boyfriends but is rejected and the two women also express their disapproval of him. Pulcinella is left to consider his position in a melancholy mood and then finds inspiration taking two sheets from a washing line.
Oscar Pouchoulin and Ami Morita in Pulcinella
Photo: Rünno Lahesoo
After dance interludes for the three women and then the two boyfriends, a figure with a noose round the neck, wearing Pulcinella’s hat, swings down and falls onto the stage. The body is found by the other five characters, and they lament his passing with slow, graceful steps and console his fiancée. Suddenly, the music speeds up and Pulcinella appears to the amazement of the others. His fiancée gives him a mild reprimand – he gets off very lightly in my view – and then the company celebrate his “return” with unison steps, concluding with a kiss for Pulcinella and his love hidden behind his hat on its side.
As a basis for his score, Stravinsky used tuneful songs by a number of early 18th-century composers. Three singers regularly come on-stage, and I was particularly impressed by tenor, Yixuan Wang. Pulcinella is an entertaining work brought to life by the dancers.
Ravel’s 50-minute opera, L’Heure Espagnole, tells the story of a clockmaker, Torquemada, performed by Reigo Tamm, with Karis Trass as his philandering wife, Concepción. Once a week he leaves his shop on civic duties, leaving his wife free to enjoy her latest lover. However, her plans are disrupted as a mule driver, Tamar Nugis as Ramiro, comes late to the shop desperate for a repair to his timepiece. He is invited to wait for the clockmaker’s return, much to the chagrin of Concepción. She finds various tasks for the muleteer so she can spend time with her lover, the young poet Gonzalve sung by Brayan Avila Martinez. A further complication is the arrival of Priit Volmer’s Don Iñigo Gomez, a banker determined to seduce Concepción.
Bryan Avila Martinez in L’Heure Espagnole
Photo: Rünno Lahesoo
As in most farces, there are hectic comings and goings but enlivened here by Concepción’s admirers taking refuge in large clocks and being carried repeatedly around the house by Ramiro. Eventually, Concepción realises that the powerful and helpful Ramiro is her best option for some fun. She invites him up to the bedroom and he accepts with alacrity.
Torquemada returns and Concepción and Ramiro return pulling their clothes straight. Torquemada is oblivious to the goings on, and the five characters close the opera singing together, with a final kiss for Concepción and Ramiro, again hidden behind a hat. I was impressed by the singing and particularly Tamm and Martinez. The acting showed much flair, making the most of the comedy in this opera.
This humorous double bill repeatedly brought a smile to my lips, and I savoured the fine dancing and singing on display.
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