Briefing Kokkola Operasummer 28.05.2018
Kokkola Opera will cease its activities under 2018. The society has produced the Kokkola Opera Summer festival between 2006 and 2018, and performed on tours in Finland and Sweden under the name West Coast Kokkola Opera.
The Kokkola Opera society will cease its activities on a high. The economy is sound and the festive production to celebrate Finland ́s 100 years of independence, Giacomo Meyerbeer ́s L ́Etoile du Nord, was a success both in Kokkola in July and at the Helsinki Music Centre in November. Kokkola Opera Summer became the most appreciated Finnish festival internationally, when the biggest opera magazine, Opernwelt, named the festival as the most interesting and high-standard in the opera genre and placed it on its front page. The CD recordings of Fagerlund ́s Döbeln and Hoffmann ́s Ahti Karjalainen have won international acclaim and won the highest Finnish cd prizes.
The Kokkola Opera society has commissioned three works from Finnish contemporary composers: Sebastian Fagerlund ́s Döbeln in 2009, Heinz-Juhani Hoffmann ́s Ahti Karjalainen in 2012 and Seppo Pohjola ́s Harrbåda ́s Maiden in 2015. In 2008 the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture singled the society out for innovative and high-quality work.
Several conductors who now lead international careers have made their debuts with the Kokkola Opera: Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Dalia Stasevska, Giancarlo Rizzi.
