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World video travel guide
Savonlinna Opera Festival season an artistic and box-office success
The 2013 season of the Savonlinna Opera Festival ends today with the last performance of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. A summer of great variety, it offered a dazzling range of directions.
There were seven operas on this year’s programme. Samson et Dalila, a new addition to the SOF repertoire and directed by Erfurt Opera Company’s General Manager Guy Montavon, commented on conflicts in the world today, while the radiant production of La traviata had all the sparkle of a cabaret in the direction by Poland’s Mariusz Treliński.
Ralf Långbacka’s epic vision of Macbeth withstood the test of time and more than lived up to expectation. The Wagner bicentennial culminated with Roman Hovenbitzer’s reading of Lohengrin, an opera steeped in romantic chivalry. The performance of the Requiem conducted by Leif Segerstam crowned the Festival’s celebration of the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s birth. The Finnish premiere for this year was the opera The Seal composed by Timo-Juhani Kyllönen and directed by Minna Vainikainen.
The season ended with guest performances by the Mikhailovsky Theatre from St. Petersburg: Verdi’s A Masked Ball and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, based on the Pushkin epic and never seen before in Olavinlinna Castle. The novel interpretations of these classics by celebrated Mikhailovsky stage directors, especially that of Eugene Onegin, aroused strong opinions. The minimalist style of Andrejs Zagars was a fine contrast to the abundant theatrics of Andriy Zholdak.
The first week of the festival also included the Timo Mustakallio Competition. The standard of this year’s competition was, according to the jury, exceptionally high. The winner was Tuuli Takala, and the Eero Rantala Scholarship was awarded to Pihla Terttunen.
The leading ‘Fringe’ event this summer was the Ballet Gala in Olavinlinna Castle produced in partnership with Savcor Ballet & Dance Open.
A new record was set for opera ticket sales. This was partly thanks to La traviata, all eight performances of which were sold out.
“Box-office magnets are always necessary, but you have to strike a happy balance,” says SOF General Director Jan Strandholm. “Maintaining a high artistic standard is most important of all.”
New Artistic Director
The 2013 season marked the end of the term of Jari Hämäläinen as Artistic Director. General Director Jan Strandholm and Jorma Silvasti, who takes over as Artistic Director at the beginning of September, look to the future with confidence. Their aim is to expand the network of foreign contacts.
“Forging contacts is a lengthy process,” says Strandholm. “We want to develop our international brand. Among other things, we are looking to Russia, and we are also setting our sights on China. We’re very much looking forward to our visit to the Hong Kong Arts Festival with Lohengrin next spring.”
Silvasti says he will always have a soft spot for his home town Savonlinna and its Opera Festival, where he had a chance to make his debut as a young, inexperienced singer at the beginning of the 80s. He is now keen to offer new, promising young Finnish soloists similar opportunities.
“The Artistic Director of the Savonlinna Opera Festival is enviably free to decide his own policy,” he says. “But this also imposes a great responsibility to raise the artistic standard even further. To do this, we need the know-how of the entire organisation.”
Tickets for 2014 selling fast
Sales of tickets for the 2014 season are well under way. The Finnish premiere for next year is Aulis Sallinen’s Kullervo, with Hannu Lintu conducting. The festival’s other own productions are Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (cond. Mikko Franck), Mozart’s The Magic Flute (cond. Okko Kamu) and Bizet’s French gem Carmen (Philippe Auguin). Mozart’s Requiem will be performed in the vast wooden church at Kerimäki, with soloists Soile Isokoski (soprano), Lilli Paasikivi (mezzo-soprano), Jorma Silvasti (tenor) and Nicholas Söderlund (bass). The Helsinki Baroque Orchestra will be conducted by Dalia Stasevska.
The Festival’s two directors are delighted to announce that, “As our guest productions for the Opera Festival’s 2014 season we welcome Verdi’s Nabucco and Puccini’s Manon Lescaut performed by the renowned Welsh National Opera.”
General Director Strandholm and Artistic Director Silvasti extend a warm welcome to all opera lovers, both faithful visitors and new acquaintances, to the Savonlinna Opera Festival 2014.
Photos of the 2013 season are available at www.operafestival.fi > media > picture gallery.
