(Credit: Marica Rosengård)

The Finnish National Opera is restructuring its 2020-21 season due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The company has announced that the first opera in the autumn repertoire will be “Covid fan tutte,” featuring soprano Karita Mattila and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. The new libretto to the score of Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” will be written by Minna Lindgren and will combine elements of political satire and reality shows.

The premiere of “Covid fan tutte,” conducted by Salonen, will take place at the end of August replacing the originally scheduled “Die Walküre.”

Jussi Nikkilä will direct the production, which will also star leading Finnish opera soloists Miina-Liisa Värelä, Tommi Hakala, Johanna Rusanen, Tuomas Katajala and Waltteri Torikka.

In a press statement Artistic Director Lilli Paasikivi said, “We had a rare opportunity to get this incredible team together at such short notice, with most artists sitting at home and waiting for work to resume. This idea was like a champagne bottle that suddenly popped: everyone was immediately and enthusiastically on board this wacky project, which deals with experiences we’ve all shared in these absurd times. This is a unique production for unique circumstances,”

The season will also see the originally planned “Die Walküre” replace “Innocence” in January 2021. The new opera, by Kaija Saariaho and Sofi Oksanen, which was slated to have its world premiere at the Festival Aix-En Provence, will therefore not be shown at the Finnish National Opera during the 2020–2021 season. However, the new work will be rescheduled for a future season.

“Die Walküre” will premiere on Jan. 29, 2021 with more dates to be announced. Meanwhile, “Siegfried” will be performed in spring 2021 and Götterdämmerung in autumn 2021.

You can check out the rest of the season here.