Helsinki Festival 2012 offers spectacles and cultural feats

Helsinki Festival (17 August – 2 September), the biggest Finnish multi arts festival, will offer several world premieres and other cultural feats in its programme this year. The menu will also include exceptionally big productions, for example Wagner's Tristan and Isolde with top performers in Helsinki's Musiikkitalo.

There will be plenty of International guests at the festival, but also new Finnish art will have a prominent role. The classical music programme includes Pekka Jalkanen's new monologue opera, as well as a new work by Uljas Pulkkis, performed by The Chamber Orchestra of Lapland. In a special Wunderkammer club night curated by Tapani Rinne, Musiikkitalo will be filled with surprises.

The Huvila tent, a special venue for popular music, jazz and world music, will present for example Apocalyptica, the famed Finnish group playing heavy metal with cellos. Kerkko Koskinen Kollektiivi will be on stage with a big orchestra and several soloists.

The festival programme goes also beyond music and its traditional forms. Children's music is celebrated with a special programme, including projects by Tapiola Sinfonietta and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, as well as the popular children's group Mimmit. Music also goes to cinema, with the silent film accompaniments by Cleaning Women.

Merja Hottinen / Fimic
25 April, 2012