When the summer evening light shimmers on the waves of Lake Saimaa and the ancient stone walls of Olavinlinna reverb echoes across the water, a moment begins – a moment whose enchantment has captured opera lovers and curious travelers alike, year after year.
In the summer of 2026, that moment resonates with music and melody – sounds that have drifted through narrow streets as whispered lullabies and risen over great squares as voices of collective strength, generation after generation.
That resonance is Italian in origin. It leads us into a summer of stories – of love and despair, loyalty and betrayal, fragility and defiance.
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly tells of longing, loss, and a love that cannot last. Verdi’s Nabucco, in turn, gives voice to a nation’s and an individual’s struggle beneath the weight of destiny and power.
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro brings to the stage a vibrant and cunning opera buffa – a brilliant comedy that cloaks its sharp social insight beneath elegance and wit.
From our guest company in Gothenburg comes Silvia Paoli’s fresh new staging of Verdi’s La Traviata. And to crown the season: Bellini’s Norma, a bel canto masterpiece in concert form, marking the much-anticipated debut of the luminous soprano Lisette Oropesa in the title role.
Troppo dolce? Perhaps. But what could be more richly fulfilling than an Italian opera summer on Lake Saimaa.
