TOWER- Steve Solkela’s production of the 1733 comic opera “La Serva Padona” was a bit unconventional, which hardly came as a surprise to anyone familiar with Solkela’s unique musical talents.
The 40-minute Italian opera by Giovanni Battista Pergolisi was written as a short to be performed during the intermission of one of his more serious opera productions. The two short comedic acts follow an elderly bachelor, Uberto, and his eventual engagement to his somewhat scheming housemaid, Serpina, who it turns out he had been in love with all along.
Most Italian operas don’t begin with Finnish accordion music or conduct three rounds of bingo for the audience during the intermission, but with Solkela you never know what to expect.
But what people did expect, and certainly got in spades, was some quality entertainment, with professionally-trained opera singers and actors who brought an almost 200-year-old Italian opera to life, thanks in part to Solkela’s clever updating for a 21st century audience.
The production, performed for an audience of about 40, was a mix of opera, vaudeville, and improv comedy. And while the seven songs in the production were sung in Italian, the programs included an English translation of each song, though it was easy to get the gist of the show from watching the singers’ expressions and pantomimes. The title “La Serva Padrona” translates to “The Maid Turned Mistress.” And Serpina, the maid in question, does get her wish, after tricking Uberto into thinking she was about to marry a soldier who had a violent temper and was demanding a large dowry. The only solution to this problem, she said, was for Uberto to marry her himself.
“I believe opera is for everyone,” Solkela wrote in the show’s program. “You don’t need to dress up fancy. You can come right from work if you need to. Clap and cheer, hoot and holler, whenever you feel like it.”
And there was plenty of that from the audience in Tower on April 16, in what was the first production of the year at the Lake Vermilion Cultural Center.
The opera was set in one location, with simple staging and limited props, something which allowed Solkela to perform the piece in different venues with simple set-ups and take-downs. Solkela recorded and mixed the musical tracks himself, on an electronic keyboard, using the violin and harpsichord feature in keeping with the music’s 1700s roots.
“This production has been a dream of mine since 2017,” Solkela said. “I’m very proud of what my team has been able to create on my budget of pocket lint and prayers.” Solkela joked that he needed to get some grant-writing skills into his repertoire. But the fact is, he was able to pull together this original production with the help of collaborators Jessica Moss, a professional opera singer who played Serpina, Branden Taus, a local actor who played the mute Vespone, tech and background music guru Peter Anderson, and costumer Miranda Stachowicz. He also thanked Ian Carlson, Barb Tucker (Andrew’s Camera), and Kyle Gray Young for their help in the production.
A boy from Palo
For a boy who grew up in Palo playing Finnish music on his accordion and honing other important skills like unicycle riding and juggling, moving on to study opera in college in New Jersey might not have been the path he expected. Coming from Palo, he liked to tell people the two career paths available were mining or the military. College was not on his radar, and Solkela had considered joining the Marines after graduating from high school.
But Northern Lights Music Festival artistic director Veda Zuponcic met Solkela when he was helping with set designs for a summer festival production. She heard him singing and arranged for him to audition for the music department, where she was a professor. Solkela was admitted after graduation from Mesabi East in 2015 and earned a scholarship that covered his tuition, but Solkela still needed to work to pay for housing and living expenses, often holding several jobs at a time, and working as a resident assistant in the dorms.
Four years of professional music training gave Solkela not only a love of opera, but also a chance to add to his impromptu set of skills, creating his own one-man-band setup, traveling overseas to perform Finnish music, and playing over 200 gigs a year working full-time as a musician.
Solkela now splits his time between Duluth and his grandmother’s home, which he recently purchased, in Mt. Iron.
Solkela said he’d love to schedule additional performances, perhaps in larger cities and with a live orchestra. “But without a grant it was just too risky,” he said. But Solkela is a Finn, and knows how to be thrifty. “Being an artist during a recession has been my entire existence.”
Solkela and company performed the opera in nine venues this month, ranging from Duluth to Finland, to Ely, and at the Vermilion Cultural Center in Tower. You can keep track of Solkela and his other area performances, concerts, and projects by following him on Facebook, and find many of his music videos on YouTube.