Viimeiset kiusaukset – The Last Temptations on stage

Viimeiset kiusaukset (The Last Temptations) is to be staged this year as a joint production by the Tampere Opera and the Savonlinna Opera Festival. In Savonlinna the opera is on stage on 22.-30.  July. The first performances were in Tampere in March and a concert version was also heard in Kuopio in May.
Fifty years will have passed in 2025 since the premiere of the Last Temptations by Joonas Kokkonen to a libretto by Lauri Kokkonen. It is one of the most popular Finnish operas of all times, its universal themes speaking to audiences year after year. The new production is directed by Mikko Kouki, and Mika Kares and Silja Aalto  sing the leading roles. 
Aamulehti wrote as follows about the Tampere performances: “It is surely not very common to go home from an opera composed in the latter half of the 20th century humming a catchy melody? It was a flash of genius on Kokkonen’s part to construct an opera based on old chorale themes around a nuclear motif constantly shifting à la Sibelius and building up to an unbelievably dramatic soundfest in the finale. …The music is a thrilling mix of new and traditional, fresh and familiar. In other words, a classic.”