Esa-Pekka Salonen

Playing with Gods (2022)

The documentary dives intimately behind the scenes of the Finnish National Opera and sucks the viewer in like the best of thrillers. The three hours fly by, even for those who aren't necessarily interested in opera as an art form. ...

Covid Fan Tutte (2020)

Autumn season at the opera opens with Covid fan tutte, starring leading Finnish soloists The first opera in the autumn repertoire will be Covid fan tutte, featuring for example soprano Karita Mattila and conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen and Hannu Lintu. The n ...

Poulenc's The Human Voice / Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle (2018)

Running through Bartók's disenchanted tale, whose haunting music was initially condemned as unplayable, and the expression of despair in Poulenc's monologue, the director Krzysztof Warlikowski perceives a shared dramatic thread, a shared feminine consciou ...

From the House of the Dead (2017)

Condensing the life stories – memories of prison in Silesia – related by Dostoyevsky in his work The House of the Dead, Leoš Janáček composed an opera filled with burning desire and longing. Contagious savagery, cruelty and brutality are exacerbated ...

Pelléas et Mélisande - Aix-en-Provence (2016)

Strauss: Elektra (2016)

The great singing actress Nina Stemme gives a heart-wrenching performance in the title role of Strauss's blazing one-act drama, adapted from the ancient Greek myth. Patrice Chéreau's acclaimed production—the last staging he worked on before his death in ...

Orango (2014)

"Orango" - prologue to an unfinished opera by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, performed by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Mariinsky Theatre Academy. In the 1920s, Soviet biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov carried ...

Universe of Sound - The Planets - Philharmonia Orchestra (2013)

Universe of Sound has won the 2013 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Audiences and Engagement. The award recognizes an outstanding initiative by an organisation or individual to engage new and existing audiences with classical music in the UK in 2012. ...

Janáček: The Makropulos Affair (2011)

Premiered in 1926, Leoš Janáček's absorbing masterpiece Veˇc Makropulos reflects all the dominant musical styles of the early 20th century, from Bohemian tunefulness to big Straussian phrases, Berg-like jaggedness and primeval rhythms. With the "breath ...

Saariaho: L'Amour de Loin (2004)

This is the 2004 version of Kaija Saariaho's opera performed by the Finnish National Opera and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. ...

Eva Dahlgren - Jag vill se min älskade komma från det vilda (1995)

Interviews with Eva Dahlgren, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Anders Hillborg are shown inbetween performances from their concert from Stockholm Central Station in the summer of 1995. ...

Everything you wanted to know about conductors but were afraid to ask (1993)

Documentary about the state of the conducting world in the 1990s. Broadcast as part of the BBC OMNIBUS strand of documentaries. ...

Letter to Peter (1992)

In 1992, Olivier Messiaen's epic opera "Saint François d'Assise" was brought to the Salzburg Festival in a staging by Peter Sellars. The distinct visual appearance that Sellars lent to the opera, where video monitors with powerful images are used as a sor ...

The Wait (2022)

The idyllic and secluded Finnish archipelago. The pandemic soars across the world. Elli's world trembles as her husband's old friend arrives at the island. ...

Janáček: The Makropulos Affair (2011)

Premiered in 1926, Leoš Janáček's absorbing masterpiece Veˇc Makropulos reflects all the dominant musical styles of the early 20th century, from Bohemian tunefulness to big Straussian phrases, Berg-like jaggedness and primeval rhythms. With the "breath ...

The Tristan Project (2004)

A four-hour plus video production inspired by Richard Wagner's oeuvre "Tristan und Isolde" and projected during the opera premiere in Paris, in partnership with Peter Sellars as artistic collaborator, and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. ...