Helsinki is a great town. Long, wind-swept streets between tall apartment buildings, and the sea swaying cold in the harbour. And even better than the town, are the friendly hallways and offices of the Finnish National Opera, in which I had the pleasure of spending much of last week, working on a new opera scheduled to premiere in Lewes this summer. The Finnish Prisoner, by Orlando Gough and Stephen Plaice, tells the story of the Finnish prisoners of war who were incarcerated in Lewes from 1854 to 1856 during the Crimean War, and this week - courtesy of a trip sponsored by the Finnish Embassy in London - the conductor John Hancorn and I got to hear some of Orlando’s energetic, multi-stylistic music sung for the first time by eight exuberant Finns. Jere, Jarmo, Arto, Olli, Mikael, Pekka, Petri and Nicholas make one hell of a noise. And they are really looking forward to coming to Lewes this summer - mostly because of the pubs. (Thank goodness for the return of the Lewes Arms.) In fact, they mentioned the beer so many times that I had a momentary vision of Sussex Express headlines - FINNS GO HOME, COMMUNITY COMPLAINS OF LATE NIGHT SINGING, FINNS ARE NOT WHAT THEY USED TO BE. Still, the glorious sound they make will be well worth it. In fact, I think the people of Lewes are going to enjoy having them around, and will probably get to hear them sing even if they don’t attend the actual opera performances.
The other person John and I got to meet this week was Yrjo-Pekka Rautalahti, a direct descendant of one of the 1854 prisoners. Yrjo-Pekka came along with his friend Kari Talvitie, an amateur historian who has made it his full-time hobby to catalogue each one of the prisoners from the regiment who were sent to Lewes.