I saw the musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame and I loved it. The singing was great, as was the orchestra and the chorus. This was my first time in Tampereen Teatteri, and I was pleasantly surprised how good the theather was. It was smaller that I thought, but because of that I was quite close the stage and I liked that. My only complain would be that there was a spot in the stage that I could not see to, but it was okay, since the characters spent so little time there.
Petrus Kähkönen was Quasimodo in the show, and he left me with mixed feelings. I did not like him as Alfred in the Finnish version of Tanz der Vampire, and even though he was better cast as Quasimodo, I felt that he over-acted. But Quasimodo is quite difficult part to play and he has a nice singing voice, so I left liking him.
My favorite was Josefin Silén, who played Esmeralda. She was just amazing, her singing was great and her acting as well was superb. Her version of God Help the Outcasts became easily my favorite version of the song. I did not mention it yet, but the translation was new. I grew up with the Disney version, so the new words were confusing at the beginning, but I got used to them quickly. I liked the new translation of God Help the Outcasts, and Bells of Notre Dame was translated well too.
Ilkka Hämäläinen played Frollo, and he also left me with mixed feelings. He lacked power I thought Frollo should have, and times to times his singing was not that great. But I still liked him, and one of my favorite scenes was Hellfire that he sung. The translation of the song was pretty bad, the original definitely has more power, but the way he carried a giant cross and then whipped himself was just amazing.
I also liked Lari Halme as Phoebus, Antti Lang as Clopin and Risto Korhonen as narrator. They all acted and sung well, especially Antti Lang's version of Court of Miracles.
The sets were amazing, as the stage had bells above it, and chorus was masked to be stone statues.
The chorus was one of the best things in the musical, it was powerful and they sang high notes, but sometimes the chorus overpowered the main casts voices and I could not hear what they said.
The show I saw was the last one, since Finland has banned gatherings of over 500 people because of the Coronavirus. I had tickets for May, but unfortunately cannot see the show again. Overall I really liked the musical, and would have gladly watched it again.
I also bought the program. It was good quality, and it cost 8 euro.
Petrus Kähkönen was Quasimodo in the show, and he left me with mixed feelings. I did not like him as Alfred in the Finnish version of Tanz der Vampire, and even though he was better cast as Quasimodo, I felt that he over-acted. But Quasimodo is quite difficult part to play and he has a nice singing voice, so I left liking him.
My favorite was Josefin Silén, who played Esmeralda. She was just amazing, her singing was great and her acting as well was superb. Her version of God Help the Outcasts became easily my favorite version of the song. I did not mention it yet, but the translation was new. I grew up with the Disney version, so the new words were confusing at the beginning, but I got used to them quickly. I liked the new translation of God Help the Outcasts, and Bells of Notre Dame was translated well too.
Ilkka Hämäläinen played Frollo, and he also left me with mixed feelings. He lacked power I thought Frollo should have, and times to times his singing was not that great. But I still liked him, and one of my favorite scenes was Hellfire that he sung. The translation of the song was pretty bad, the original definitely has more power, but the way he carried a giant cross and then whipped himself was just amazing.
I also liked Lari Halme as Phoebus, Antti Lang as Clopin and Risto Korhonen as narrator. They all acted and sung well, especially Antti Lang's version of Court of Miracles.
The sets were amazing, as the stage had bells above it, and chorus was masked to be stone statues.
The chorus was one of the best things in the musical, it was powerful and they sang high notes, but sometimes the chorus overpowered the main casts voices and I could not hear what they said.
The show I saw was the last one, since Finland has banned gatherings of over 500 people because of the Coronavirus. I had tickets for May, but unfortunately cannot see the show again. Overall I really liked the musical, and would have gladly watched it again.
Petrus Kähkönen as Quasimodo.
Ilkka Hämäläinen as Frollo and Petrus Kähkönen as Quosimodo.
Pictures by Heikki Järvinen.
