Eilana Lappalainen – dramatic soprano

Finnish-Canadian soprano Eilana Lappalainen is one of today’s most acclaimed interpreters of dramatic opera roles. Her commanding musicality has been praised as “rare perfection”, and her stage presence as “ravishing”. Opera News wrote about her Salome at Seattle Opera in 2002: “Lappalainen’s extraordinary physical lightness and agility, her diverse vocal palette and her grasp of the character’s complexity were deeply moving… Her dance of the seven veils is simply the best I’ve ever seen (including Welitsch, Borkh and Stratas on film, perhaps the greatest Salome ever.)”

Ms. Lappalainen has performed to critical claim in the world’s premiere opera venues: La Scala,  Hamburgische Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Finnish National Opera, New York City Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opéra de Montreal, Opera Nacional de México, New Israeli Opera and many more. Her extensive repertoire has grown to include numerous leading roles such as Salome, Senta (“Der Fliegende Holländer”), the title role in “Jenufa”, and the Puccini heroines Turandot, Tosca, Cio-Cio-San, Minnie (“La Fanciulla del West”) and Giorgetta (“Il Tabarro”). No stranger to contemporary repertoire, Ms. Lappalainen’s performance as Lulu at the San Francisco Opera under the direction of Lotfi Mansouri in 1998 marked the starting point of her international career. Recently she sang the role of Beatrice in „Vipern” by Christian Jost at the Stadttheater Bern (Switzerland), and in October 2007 she made her debut at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma as Marie in “Wozzeck” under the direction of Giancarlo del Monaco. In 2008 she sang a series of “Tosca” performances with the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic in the Czech Republic, appeared as Trovatore-Leonora with Virginia Opera, and returned to her sigature role Salome with the Lithuanian National Opera’s guest performances in Tel Aviv.

In 2009 she gave her UK debut in Oxford singing excerpts from Cherubini’s “Medea”, and made her debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, where she sang a concert with excerpts from Isaac Albéniz’s opera “Merlin”. In addition she covered Karita Mattila in the role of Leonore in the Gran Teatre del Liceu’s revival of the MET’s “Fidelio” production by Jürgen Flimm, and in July she returned to Greece as Tosca at the International Festival of the Aegean.

On the concert stage, Ms. Lappalainen made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2005, singing the soprano solo in Mozart’s Requiem. She returned to Carnegie Hall in 2007 as the soprano soloist in the Verdi-Requiem, and interpreted Silvia in Mascagni’s opera “Zanetto”, a role she later performed in the Greek premiere as part of the Festival of the Aegean and in the Czech Republic. Her extensive concert repertoire encompasses Wagner’s “Wesendonck-Lieder”, “Vier letzte Lieder” by Richard Strauss und Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. She has recorded a live-broadcast (2004) of “Salome” with the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a CD with the Anhaltische Philharmonie Orchester Dessau of Verdi arias and a CD with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra of Italian opera arias. In addition, her voice was heard as Mimì in the film “Café and Tobacco”.

Ms. Lappalainen credits her artistic foundation and acting training to the companies Opera San José (where as the first principal artist-in-residence she sang 30 leading roles) and Anhaltisches Theater Dessau (where she sang 25 leading roles).