Performer: Vilppu Kiljunen

Olavinlinna, also known as St Olaf's Castle, provides an atmospheric setting for Verdi's take on Shakespeare's “Scottish play”. 

Auguin conducted as if he really believes in this evergreen work, which was wonderful to hear in the composer’s rather overlooked anniversary year.

Opening the weekend that marked the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution, The Mine (A Bánya), the first of Rautavaara's nine operas, dramatizes events from those turbulent times. 

At the Estonian National Opera, Vilppu Kiljunen's staging of Hindemith's crime opera Cardillac is wonderfully eerie. Unfortunately, conductor Vello Pähn's reading of the score doesn't do it justice.