Helena Juntunen

Helena Juntunen is today one of Finland’s most outstanding sopranos, with an international career. Her flexible soprano voice captivates audiences with its freshness, and her phrasing is praised for its expressive and natural quality. Helena established her career in Finland by winning several competitions, among them the women’s category at the Lappeenranta Singing Competition in 2002, and in October 2006 she was awarded the Karita Mattila Prize.

Helena Juntunen began her vocal studies at the age of 15 at the Oulu Conservatoire with Airi Tokola. She holds a Master of Arts degree in music from the Sibelius Academy, where she studied with Anita Välkki.

Her role as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 2002 can be regarded as her professional breakthrough. She made her U.S. debut with Connecticut Opera in the same role in the 2003–2004 season. This season can overall be considered a debut season, as Helena also debuted in Genoa as Madame Cortese in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, in Antwerp as Zdenka in Strauss’s Arabella, and as Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Semperoper in Dresden. In addition, she made her concert debut at Carnegie Hall in New York in October 2003 and later in Tokyo.

Helena Juntunen has been affiliated with the Finnish National Opera since 1999. There, she has performed roles such as Zdenka in Arabella and Madame Cortese in Il viaggio a Reims under the direction of Nobel laureate Dario Fo. Her repertoire includes roles such as Sophie in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Nedda in Pagliacci, Mimì in La bohème, Liisa in Pohjalaisia, Pamina in The Magic Flute, as well as world premieres such as Alide in Jüri Reinvere’s Purge (Puhdistus) and Helena in Sebastian Fagerlund’s Autumn Sonata alongside Anne-Sofie von Otter.

The 2007–2008 opera season began in Nancy with Kurt Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. In Geneva, she sang Pamina, and in spring 2008 she made her debut as the Countess in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in Nice. The highlight of the summer was the title role in the new opera Anna Liisa by Finnish composer Veli-Matti Puumala. In the 2008–2009 season, she debuted at the Göteborg Opera as Mimì in La bohème.

She has since debuted at Opéra National de Lyon as both Countess Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), sung Mimì at the Göteborg Opera, Marietta in Korngold’s Die tote Stadt and Infanta Clara in Der Zwerg at Opéra National de Lorraine, Marie in Wozzeck at Opéra de Nice, Zdenka in Arabella at Vlaamse Opera, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin at Wasa Teater, and Greta Graumann in Schreker’s Der ferne Klang at Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg. She is also particularly associated with the role of Pamina, which she has performed at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence under Daniel Harding, at La Monnaie under René Jacobs, as well as at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Wiener Festwochen, Theater an der Wien, and the Semperoper Dresden.

Among her concert highlights are Sibelius’s Luonnotar in Sydney and London under Vladimir Ashkenazy, concerts in Amsterdam with Leif Segerstam and in Ottawa with John Storgårds, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Lucerne Festival under Vladimir Jurowski, Unsuk Chin’s SnagS & Snarls in Stavanger, Helsinki, and London, and the premiere of Hafliði Hallgrímsson’s song cycle in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Reykjavik. She has also performed Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with La Verdi under Xian Zhang and with Sir Colin Davis in London, Bonn, Paris, and New York, as well as Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Leif Segerstam. She has also made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under Donald Runnicles in Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä in Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater.

In recent seasons, Juntunen has sung Madama Butterfly and Donna Elvira at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Marie/Marietta in Die tote Stadt in Simon Stone’s critically acclaimed production in Basel, Salome in Olivier Py’s production in Strasbourg, Kát’a Kabanová at Opéra National de Lorraine, and the soprano part in a staged version of Dvořák’s Stabat Mater in Montpellier.

Helena Juntunen has appeared as a soloist with numerous Finnish orchestras and has worked with conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Leif Segerstam, Osmo Vänskä, Mikko Franck, and Hannu Lintu. Her recordings for Ondine include a solo album of songs by Leevi Madetoja with pianist Gustav Djupsjöbacka, as well as complete recordings of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s operas Aleksis Kivi and Auringon talo. In spring 2006, BIS released the album The Spirit of Nature as part of the Sibelius Edition, featuring Luonnotar and premiere recordings of orchestral versions of the songs Höstkväll and Hertig Magnus, conducted by Osmo Vänskä.

Helsingin Sanomat, Jukka Isopuro: “Soprano Helena Juntunen has already proven that she belongs to the elite of traditional bel canto, but her vocal acrobatics in the opera Ladies Room were nothing short of astonishing. An impeccable clarity of tone and beautifully shaped high notes, combined with a constantly shifting timbre and lightning-fast expressive nuances, demonstrated not only her ability to immerse herself in the role but also her razor-sharp technique.”