Finnish National Opera

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Opera House, Helsinki

The Finnish National Opera (Finnish: Kansallisooppera) in Helsinki is the leading opera company in Finland. Its home base is the Opera House on Töölönlahti bay in Töölö which opened in 1993. The Opera House features state-of-the-art technology and two auditoriums: the main auditorium with 1,350 seats and a smaller studio auditorium with 300 to 500 seats.

1 History
2 Personnel
3 Productions
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Regular opera performances began in Finland in 1873 with the founding of the Finnish Opera by Kaarlo Bergbom. Prior to that, opera had been performed in Finland sporadically by touring companies, and on occasion by Finnish amateurs, the first such production being The Barber of Seville in 1849.

In 1956, the Finnish Opera was taken over by the Foundation of the Finnish National Opera and acquired its present name.

[edit] Personnel

The Finnish National Opera has some 30 permanently engaged solo singers, a professional choir of 60 singers and its own orchestra of 120 members. The Ballet has 90 dancers from 17 countries. All together, the opera has a staff of 735.

Past music directors and chief conductors have included Okko Kamu (1996-2000) and Muhai Tang (2003-2006)^[1]. Since 2006, the music director and artistic director is Mikko Franck.

[edit] Productions

The Finnish National Opera stages four to six premieres a year, including a world premiere of at least one Finnish opera, such as Rasputin by Einojuhani Rautavaara. Some 20 different operas in 140 performances are found in the opera's schedule yearly. The Ballet arranges some 110 performances annually. The Finnish National Opera has some 250,000 visitors a year.