The Savonlinna Opera Festival will be celebrating its 90th anniversary in summer 2002. It was in 1912 that the opera singer Aino Ackté first held an opera in what she termed a romantic castle set amid lake scenery of supernatural beauty. Now, 90 years later, the Festival has become one of the most illustrious events in the musical calendar, each year providing a magnificent setting for masterpieces of operatic literature. The 2002 Festival has all kinds of treats in store for opera-lovers to savour in advance. In honour of the jubilee year the Festival is staging two premieres, Aarre Merikanto’s Juha and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. The season will also mark the beginning of a new chapter in the Festival’s history with the completion of the new, wooden, 800-seat Savonlinna Hall. Adjoining the Wanha Kasino, the hall will allow the Festival to concentrate its concerts on a venue of the highest calibre. It will also give the programme planners greater scope and make the various events easily accessible. Finnish opera has always occupied a prominent position at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. The support for and performance of Finnish music drama has resulted in numerous interesting premieres. It therefore seems more than fitting for the jubilee year to revive the work that sparked off the success story of Finnish opera at Savonlinna: Aarre Merikanto’s Juha. More than thirty years have passed since Juha was last performed on the Olavinlinna stage. The 2002 production will be directed by Juha Hemánus and conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste, with stage designs and costumes by Mark Väisänen. Charles Gounod’s Faust will be back on the programme after a year’s absence in the highly-acclaimed direction by Vilppu Kiljunen – a harmonious conception in which the inventive stage designs by Kimmo Viskari create a colourful, dynamic pageant. The musical direction has been entrusted to Markus Lehtinen. Last year was Verdi year and saw the premiere of Ralf Långbacka’s direction of Rigoletto. This popular opera will continue in the Olavinlinna repertoire under the baton of Alberto Hold-Garrido, the highly-praised conductor of the 2001 season’s Aida. Next summer we are also offering two big Wagner productions. One of them, with an almost all-Finnish cast of star singers headed by Matti Salminen, is Tristan und Isolde conducted by Leif Segerstam. The director is Karen Stone, who visited the Savonlinna Opera Festival last summer in the guest performance of Don Giovanni by Los Angeles Opera. Guest productions are an important feature of the Savonlinna Opera Festival. For summer 2002 it has invited along one of the greatest German opera houses, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein from Düsseldorf. During its visit the Opera will be performing Wagner’s Mastersingers directed by Heinz-Lukas Kindermann. The stage designs are by Günther Schneider-Siemssen and the costumes by Inge Diettrich. The other work will be Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier with conductor Hans Wallat, director Otto Schenk, stage designer Bert Kistner and costumes by Gabriele Freyn. The colour history of the Festival will be recalled with nostalgia in the Castle on July 21. Entitled The Festival Looks Back, the gala concert will be staged by Jussi Tapola and feature a galaxy of stars, the Savonlinna Opera Festival Orchestra and Choir, and a children’s choir, all conducted by Eri Klas and Kyösti Haatanen and presented by Helena Juntunen and Aarno Cronvall. The Festival concert programme offers plenty of variety. Jorma Hynninen, the Festival’s Artistic Director for many years, accompanied at the piano by Ilkka Paananen will be giving a farewell concert in the Savonlinna Hall on July 7. Later that day, the same hall will be taken over by the Opera Big Band consisting mainly of musicians from the Finnish National Opera with Antti Sarpila as the conductor and soloist. The programme promises a selection of operatic numbers arranged by Sarpila. The Artist of the Year for the 2002 season is Ritva Auvinen, a soprano who has made a long and brilliant career. The host in the concert of works requested by her will be Aarno Cronvall. Cynthia Makris, soprano, and Erkki Korhonen, piano, will be giving a recital on July 10 of music of the Jugend (Art Nouveau) era. The Lied recital on July 14 by mezzo-soprano Marjana Lipovšek will be held in the Castle and will also star Anthony Spiri, piano, and Marko Ylönen, cello. Soprano Helena Juntunen, winner of the last Timo Mustakallio Competition, can be heard in the Savonlinna Hall on July 27. Tying in with the exhibition at the Retretti Art Centre at Punkaharju will be a concert on July 15 headed “Christ at Retretti”. The programme will consist of sacred music both Finnish and foreign by Bach, Handel, Einojuhani Rautavaara and Ilkka Kuusisto. Audiences will also have a chance to hear the Haapavesi Chamber Orchestra conducted by Timo Hannula. The soloists will be Lilli Paasikivi, Sari Aittokoski, Kristiina Nietula, Topi Lehtipuu and Esa Ruuttunen. The concert in Savonlinna Little Church on July 25 will be given by Laura Hynninen, harp, and Janne Rättyä, classical accordion in a programme ranging from Bach to Piazzolla. Young Finnish singers will once again be competing in summer 2002 in the Timo Mustakallio competition held every other year. Both rounds of the competition will be on the same day, July 28. The Savonlinna Opera Festival July 5 - August 4 promises to be a real feast of music and drama.