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’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. Since then, she has performed to critical acclaim in the world’s premiere opera venues: La Scala, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Finnish National Opera, New York City Opera, Seattle Opera, Virignia 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 in “Der Fliegende Holländer”, Elisabeth in “Tannhäuser”, Leonore in “Fidelio”, Marie in “Wozzeck”, the title roles in “Jenufa” and “Medea”, and the Puccini heroines Tosca, Butterfly, Minnie (“La Fanciulla del West”) and Giorgetta (“Il Tabarro”).

In recent years she has added the high-dramatic roles of Brünhilde, Elektra, Isolde and Turandot to her repertoire. She continues to perform her signature role Salome (2008 with the Lithuanian National Opera in Tel Aviv), as well as Tosca (2008 with the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic, 2009 at the International Festival of the Aegean), Medea (2009 with Oxford Philomusica), Fidelio-Leonore (2009 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona as cover for Karita Mattila) and Agathe (2010 with Opera Classica).

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 International Festival of the Aegean and on tour through the Czech Republic.  2009 marked her debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona with excerpts from Isaac Albéniz’s opera “Merlin”.  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 their first principal artist-in-residence, she sang 30 leading roles) and Anhaltisches Theater Dessau (where she sang 25 leading roles).