The performance has already been sold out for days and an audience of 2,300 fills the Lappi Arena on Wednesday.
175 performers will conquer the Lappi-arena stage in Rovaniemi on Wednesday, May 10. The big joint tour of the Finnish National Opera and Ballet is now coming to the northernmost corner. 2,300 tickets were sold out several days before the show.
Lappi arena is normally used by hockey and other ice sports enthusiasts, but now about half of the large ice area is covered under a dance and performance mat.
– These people and such an inspiring atmosphere. An inspiring work environment, says Riipi.
On Wednesday, the audience can enjoy the most popular pieces of opera and ballet. There will also be costume splendor. More than 550 costumes can be seen on stage.
– It will be a great, emotional performance. If you come to listen and watch with an open mind, the hairs on your skin will surely stand up, Tero Riipi believes.
The Finnish National Opera and Ballet are on tour together for the first time since the wars. When the National Opera and Ballet planned a big tour, Rovaniemi clearly emerged as one of the performance venues.
– Now let’s implement our national prefix and go around the provinces. We started to map the localities, and Rovaniemi was a pretty clear choice in the initial planning phase, Tuovila states.
How does the Lapland arena work in such a high class production?
– After all, that’s the space planning and logistics, how to get all the goods and 11 trucks emptied. Not all at once, of course. We managed to set it up slowly, piece by piece, Tuovila says.
In total, almost 300 people work on the grand tour. In addition to Rovaniemi, the tour goes to Joensuu, Helsinki and Turku. The tour started in Oulu. We went on tour because of the renovation of the opera house’s stage.
*On May 9, 2023 at 3:55 p.m., a video was added as the main image.*