Opera Festival in Olavinlinna Fortress, Southern Savonia, Finland
4.5 (69 reviews) Spent Ranking #2 in Savonlinna Operas
Great opera experience.
Fantastic opera festival in a beautiful setting. The operas are of very high quality and the service is out of this world. I am wheel-chair bound and the personnel meets you outside the medieval castle and pushes, drags and almost carries you into the stands. After the opera the same again in reverse. Everybody is friendly and this includes also the public.
Address
Olavinkatu 27, Savonlinna 57130 Finland
Mobile
Website
http://www.operafestival.fi
Current local date and time now
Saturday, May 11, 2024, 12:03
User Ratings
4.5 based on (69 reviews)
Excellent
64%
Good
32%
Satisfactory
3%
Poor
1%
Terrible
0%
Reviews
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512APlace 5:00 PM Aug 25, 2017
Wonderful!
It was our 48th Wedding Anniversary, so I was directed by my wife to find an opera. Even she was a little taken aback when I suggested Finland. But to Finland we came, and hired a car at Helsinki Airport (it is about a 4 1/2 hour drive from Helsinki to Savonlinna, though there is a local airport there). We had booked for I Puritani, by Bellini. Neither of us knew it, so I bought a CD with Callas and di Stefano, and we listened to it a good deal prior to the opera. With singers like that, though, it was going to be a disappointment. It was not! The setting is magical - you walk over a drawbridge onto an island castle built in the ?15th century as the last bastion of Sweden's then protection. Water is all around, and the castle is as castley as one could wish for. And then the opera. A background of 100 yards of fortification wall, and singers (from the Madrid opera company) who were breathtakingly good. There were English sur-titles. The whole experience was one which we shall never forget. If ever you have the chance to go, please do - the festival runs for a month from early July until early August. We feel privileged to have been there.
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5Satu H 5:00 PM Aug 4, 2014
Magical scene for opera & great atmosphere in the festival
Savonlinna Opera Festival is a very unique experience. The Olavinlinna fortress offers a setting which no other place can beat. Walking to the island (where the fortress is) forces you to calm down and relax prior the opera and the scene within the castle in unique. The whole town of Savonlinna (located beautifully by the lakes) breaths the atmosphere of the magical opera air. Unlike anything else. I have been there 10+ years and will return every year again.
