Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Finnish National Opera Chorus & Tsuumi Dance Company, Mikko Franck (conductor) & Pekka Milonoff (stage director)
DVD Video
$26.50
Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days.
Recorded live in Helsinki, Finnish National Opera, May 2008
Directed for video by Aarno Cronvall
This new DVD features the première recording for video of the two-act opera The Red Line (1978) by Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen (b. 1935).
Opera magazine called The Red Line “a work of both national and universal significance.” Its story centers on the fate of a poor woodsman, Topi, and his wife, Riika, and deals with the Finnish quest for social justice at the first free elections in 1907.
Legendary baritone Jorma Hynninen headed the Finnish National Opera ensemble in the work’s world première and subsequent tour performances to great acclaim: “Sallinen’s Red Line is the best new opera I have heard in many a year (...) it proved as gripping in its way as Wozzeck or Jenufa” The New York Times
This release pays tribute to Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen on the occasion of his 75th birthday in 2010. Sallinen started a new wave of Finnish opera in the 1970s, and The Red Line played a fundamental part in establishing Finnish contemporary music on the international scene.
EXTRAS: Interviews with Aulis Sallinen, Pekka Milonoff, Mikko Franck, Jorma Hynninen
DVD Video [115’ • 44’ Extras]
Subtitles: Finnish / English
NTSC colour • 16:9
5.1 Dolby Digital Surround / PCM Stereo
Region Code 0 • English Menu
Worldwide Available
December 2010
“With musical intelligence and dramatic insight he projects a convincing mix of fortitude, desperation and helplessness...[Nisula's] edgy dramatic soprano is combined with first-rate acting skills...Franck conducts with super-charged commitment, giving the grim closing scenes the emotive force that elicits tears. The sound is good too.”
