This year’s dose of opera from Olavinlinna will be delivered to your home. In July, the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle will showcase a total of three performances from the Opera Festival on its online platform, Yle Areena. The remote festival will be kick started by Karita Mattila and Ville Matvejeff’s summer concert. We will also see Aulis Sallinen’s opera Kullervo and Mozart’s Requiem, both recordings from 2014.
Please see below for broadcasting times.
Yle Areena 1 July 2020 at 9 p.m.
Available on Yle Areena for six months
”I’m really looking forward to singing at the castle and performing with Ville the programme we specifically put together for this unique occasion,” soprano Karita Mattila rejoices. Savonlinna Opera Festival’s Artistic Director Ville Matvejeff will perform as a pianist at the concert.
The programme is as fresh as the summer breeze on the Saimaa lakeside, featuring opera arias like ’Song to the Moon’ from Rusalka, lieds, songs by Sibelius and Merikanto, and classics from films and musicals.
The concert is a recording from the Olavinlinna central hall from the end of June 2020. It is a co-production by Savonlinna Opera Festival, Yle, the Franco-German culture channel Arte, and the European Business Leaders’ Convention EBLC.
Discover next summer’s concert, too:
Karita Mattila Grand Festive Gala
conducted by Hannu Lintu
24 and 26 July 2021
Program 1 July 2020
Antonín Dvořák
Rusalka’s aria ”Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém” (Song to the Moon) from the opera Rusalka
Johannes Brahms
Meine Liebe ist grün
Wiegenlied
Vergebliches Ständchen
Jean Sibelius
Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte
Oskar Merikanto
Omenankukat
Kun päivä paistaa
–
Richard Wagner
Elisabeth’s aria ”Dich, teure Halle” from the opera Tannhäuser
Theo Mackeben
“Ich will nicht vergessen” from the film Der Weg ins Freie
Sigmund Romberg
“Will You Remember” from the musical Maytime
George Gershwin
The Man I Love
Giacomo Puccini
Manon’s aria ”Sola, perduta, abbandonata” from the opera Manon Lescaut
Yle Areena 5 July 2020 at 12 p.m.
Available on Yle Areena for 30 days
You can also experience the Opera Festival atmosphere by tuning in to glorious summers past. On Sunday 5 July Yle will broadcast online Aulis Sallinen’s Kullervo from the 2014 Opera Festival. Kullervo’s powerful story is based on the Kalevala and a play by Aleksis Kivi. ”Kullervo is one of those people that we see on the news, turning a weapon on their own kind,” director Kari Heiskanen says.
The performance is conducted by Hannu Lintu. The title role of Kullervo is sung by Tommi Hakala (left in the picture) and other soloists include Ville Rusanen (right in the picture), Tuija Knihtilä, Petri Lindroos, Reetta Haavisto, Jenny Carlstedt, Aki Alamikkotervo, Juha Kotilainen, Vuokko Kekäläinen, Maria Ylipää and Koit Soasepp.
Watch the trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT0L90Q11w4
Conductor Hannu Lintu
Director Kari Heiskanen
Set design Antti Mattila
Costume design Riitta Anttonen-Palo
Choirmaster Matti Hyökki
Savonlinna Opera Festival Orchestra and Opera Festival Choir
Yle Areena 12 July 2020 at 12 p.m.
Available on Yle Areena for 30 days
Requiem with top tier soloists is a recording from Kerimäki Church. Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and the Savonlinna Opera Festival Choir accompany Soile Isokoski, Lilli Paasikivi, Jorma Silvasti, and Nicholas Söderlund. The concert is conducted by Dalia Stasevska.
Mozart composed this work until the day he died. ”A death mass commissioned for another eventually became a testament to the immortal music of the composer who died young,” Yle wrote about the work when it was first broadcast in 2014.
