Opera Music of Finland

Aino Ackte and other prominent opera composer initiated the Finnish Opera in the year 1911, Ackte also started a festival in Savonlinna in the following year; this was the forerunner of the Savonlinna Opera Festival, which was started in the year 1960, shortly before the new Finnish opera became popular in the year 1970. Leevi Madetoja;s 1924 Pohjalaisia, an operatic symbol about Russian oppression during the past eras, became famous during the year 1920. Barely, the same time, Aare merikanto released the opera Juha to the libretto by Aino Ackte, who rejected it and asked Leevi Madetoja to release another version instead; Merikanto’s Juha was first shown after the singer death in the year 1958, and it is now widely regarded as an underrated masterwork.

source of picture: finland.fi

Also Aulis Sallinen began a new wave of Finnish opera in the year 1970 with the Horseman and the Red Line, the Red Line was soon accepted all over the globe with numerous reproductions in A.O. Moscow, New York and London, along with Sallinen’s stage works, Joonas Kokkonen’s opera the Last Temptations contributed heavily to the new rise of the Finnish opera music. More current major operas by the Finnish producers include among others like Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin and Adriana mater as well as Olli Kortekanga’s Isan tytto (Daddy’s Girl).