Finnish National Opera

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The Finnish National Opera ( Finnish: Suomen Kansallisooppera , Swedish Finlands nationalopera ) is the only professional opera company in Finland . The ensemble was founded in 1911. The building in which it is housed is located in the capital Helsinki on the shores of Töölönlahti Bay. It was completed in 1993 and has two auditoriums: the main theater has 1350 seats, the smaller one can accommodate 300 to 500 people depending on the seating.

history

Helsinki Opera House
The Alexander-Theater, venue of the opera until 1993

Up until the second half of the 19th century, operas were only performed sporadically in Finland, either by amateur actors or by foreign ensembles that were on tour. After the Finnish opera culture had gradually developed, regular professional performances began for the first time in 1873 when an opera company called the Finnish Opera (Suomalainen ooppera) was founded at the Finnish National Theater in Helsinki . However, this ensemble was dissolved again in 1879 for financial reasons.

The opera ensemble that exists today was founded in 1911 under the name "Local Opera" (Kotimainen ooppera / Inhemska operan) . The next u. a. Oskar Merikanto , soprano Aino Ackté, who was one of the founders , fell out with the other founders in 1912 and left the ensemble to found the Savonlinna Opera Festival , which still exists today . In 1914 the local opera was renamed “Finnish Opera” and in 1956 “National Opera”.

In its first few years the opera company had no permanent venue. After Finland became independent in 1917, the former Russian Alexander Theater (Aleksanterin teatteri) in Helsinki was given to the ensemble in 1918 . However, this was actually too small for the opera. The construction of a separate building had been planned since the 1920s, but due to financial difficulties, the plans could only be implemented in 1993 with the opening of today's opera house. It was the first building in the country designed as an opera house from the start .

Cast and schedule

The Finnish National Opera has 30 permanently engaged solo singers, a 60-piece choir with an associated orchestra , which has around 120 members. The ballet troupe includes 90 dancers from 17 countries. In total, the opera has around 735 members.

The National Opera puts on between four and six premieres every year, including a world premiere of at least one Finnish opera such as Rasputin by composer Einojuhani Rautavaara , Höstsonatas by Sebastian Fagerlund (2017), Sanatorio Express by Iiro Rantala (2018) or Jää by Jaakko Kuusisto ( 2019). 20 different operas in around 140 performances are on the program every year. The Finnish National Opera has around a quarter of a million visitors annually.

Web links

Commons : Finnish National Opera  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Website of the Finnish National Opera: Kansallisoopperan historiaa ( Memento from May 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 60 ° 10 ′ 54 ″  N , 24 ° 55 ′ 47 ″  E