The 58th Turku Music Festival will be held from 9 to 18 August 2017. The high point of next summer’s festival will be two concert performances of the opera Parsifal by Richard Wagner.
Conductor Ville Matvejeff, artistic director of the Turku Music Festival, describes the project: “The high point of the year will be the lightly edited concert performance given by the Turku Music Festival of the opera Parsifal by Richard Wagner. This three-act opera, slightly condensed for this production, is a drama of the relationships between six characters. Our performances will include a dazzling début, as Finland’s most brilliant operastar Karita Mattila will be making her first appearance in the role of Kundry. The cast will also include some of the brightest stars in the Wagner firmament, such as Klaus Florian Vogt, a frequent soloist at Bayreuth and currently at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and iconic bass singer Matti Salminen. The production will also feature début performances by Waltteri Torikka, Tapani Plathan and Juha Kotilainen. Richard Wagner was and arguably still is one of the greatest reformers in the history of opera, and the theme of early Christianity that forms the foundation of Parsifal makes it an excellent fit for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.”
Karita Mattila says: “Ville’s invitation to perform Kundry for the first time in Turku suited my timetable very well, and I had been thinking of doing this role for some time. It i s a great role for a dramatic soprano. And with the cast that Ville had managed to assemble, it was easy to say yes. I have fond memories of performing in Turku and am pleased to return.”
Parsifal will be performed at Turku Concert Hall on Thu 10 Aug at 18.00 and Sat 12 Aug at 14.00. Artistic team:
Parsifal: Klaus Florian Vogt Kundry: Karita Mattila Gurnemanz: Matti Salminen Amfortas: Waltteri Torikka Klingsor: Tapani Plathan Titurel: Juha Kotilainen Chorus Cathedralis Aboensis Turku Philharmonic Orchestra Ville Matvejeff, conductor
The concerts will be produced jointly with the City of Turku and the Turku and Kaarina Parish Union under the Reformation Anniversary Year 2017 project. The full programme of the festival will be published in February 2017.
Tickets
Tickets to the Parsifal performances will go on sale on 17th of October 2016 at Ticketmaster Finland
(Lippupalvelu) points of sale around the country and at the Ars Musica cultural shop at Turku Concert Hall.
Group bookings: Turku Music Festival office, / 040 740 6200
Further information and interview requests
Executive Director Liisa Ketomäki, tel. +358 40 740 6200, e-mail
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CAST CHANGE FOR THE OPERA DIE KALEWAINEN IN POCHJOLA
The next collaboration between the Turku Music Festival and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra,
which has already been announced, is the world premiere of the opera Die Kalewainen in Pochjola BY Karl Müller-Berghaus at Logomo on 28 February 2017. This production forms part of the official programme for celebrating the centenary of Finland’s independence. The cast of the opera has changed due to scheduling conflicts: Swedish soprano Susanna Andersson will be replaced in the role of Ismo by one of Finland’s leading sopranos, Kaisa Ranta.
The other soloists are Johanna Rusanen-Kartano (Louchi), Christian Juslin (Achti Lemminkäinen), Petri Lindroos (Väinämöinen), Tommi Hakala (Ilmarinen) and Anna Danik (Luonnotar). The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra will be conducted by Leif Segerstam (performances 28 Feb to 9 Mar) and
Ruut K iiski (performance 11 Mar). The production will be directed by Tiina Puumalainen, with sets by Teppo Järvinen. Further information: www.kalewainen.fi