Finnish National Opera House - Helsinki, Finland - Concert Halls on Waymarking.com

"The Finnish National Opera (Finnish: Suomen Kansallisooppera; Swedish: Finlands Nationalopera) is a Finnish opera company based in Helsinki. Its home base is the Opera House on Töölönlahti bay in Töölö, which opened in 1993, and is state-owned through Senate Properties. The Opera House features two auditoriums, the main auditorium with 1,350, seats and a smaller studio auditorium with 300-500 seats.

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. However, the Finnish Opera company soon plunged into a financial crisis and folded in 1879. During its six year's of operation, Bergbom’s opera company had given 450 performances of a total of 26 operas, and the company had managed to demonstrate that opera can be sung in Finnish too. After the disbandment of the Finnish Opera, the opera audiences of Helsinki had to confine themselves to performances of visiting opera companies and occasional opera productions at the Finnish National Theatre.

The reincarnation of the Finnish opera institution took place about 30 years later. A group of notable social and cultural figures, led by the international star soprano Aino Ackté, founded the Domestic Opera in 1911. From the very beginning, the opera decided to engage both foreign and Finnish artists. A few years later the Domestic Opera was renamed the Finnish Opera in 1914. In 1956, the Finnish Opera was, in turn, taken over by the Foundation of the Finnish National Opera, and acquired its present name.

Between 1918 and 1993 the home of the opera was the Alexander Theater, which had been assigned to the company on a permanent basis. The home was inaugurated with an opening performance of Verdi’s Aida. When the first dedicated opera house in Finland was finally completed and inaugurated in 1993, the old opera house was given back its original name, the Alexander Theater, after the Tsar Alexander II.

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."

--Wikipedia (visit link)

Website: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and brief account of your visit. One or more additional photos are desirable, but not required.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   05/02/2023 Owwe visited it 11/19/2021 seppo54 visited it 10/21/2021 Mika_N visited it 10/09/2021 Njasse visited it 08/27/2020 AiliLe visited it 07/21/2020 makkara 1974 visited it 05/30/2020 Munnen visited it 05/20/2020 Merelä Matti visited it 03/09/2020 Hegetsu visited it 02/13/2020 BomBomBom visited it 02/05/2019 Katte visited it 04/01/2018 aurorat visited it 02/24/2018 vikiki1 visited it 04/04/2017 juhanili visited it 12/19/2016 Jouni Jurmu visited it 04/24/2016 zaxa visited it 04/19/2016 veehoo74 visited it 03/28/2016 JHfin visited it 03/17/2016 sa&jo visited it 12/28/2015 perttiv visited it 11/15/2015 makans visited it 08/01/2015 abcKM visited it

View all visits/logs