Rasputin - Opera in Three Acts

Lilli Paasikivi notable performances have included: Schoenberg's Gurrelieder with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste; Wagner's Wesendonk-Lieder with Janos Furst; Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn and also Gurrelieder with Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen; the world premiere of Shchedrin's The Enchanted Wanderer with New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel; Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky and On Guard for Peace with the Philharmonia under Vladimir Ashkenazy; Zemlinsky's Maeterlinck Lieder with Münchner Philharmoniker under Susanna Mälkki; Mahler's Kindertotenlieder with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Mariss Jansons; and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontious with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Ashkenzay. Last season she made her concert débuts with Cincinnati Symphony and London Symphony Orchestra both under the baton of Paavo Järvi, New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas and Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle. As principal soloist at Finnish National Opera, roles have included Carmen, Angelina (La cenerentola), Cordelia in Sallinen's King Lear, Dorabella (Cosiì fan tutte), Marguerite (La damnation de Faust), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Marchesa Melibea in Dario Fo's production of Il viaggio a Reims; Varvara (Katya Kabanova), Aleksandra Fjodorovna in Rautavaara's Rasputin and Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier). Elsewhere she made her début at the Châtelet in the role of The Pilgrim in Saariaho's opera L'amour de loin, sang the role of Jitsuko Honda in the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa's Hanjo at Festival d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, made her house and role débuts at Opéra de Lyon as The Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos) and returned to Aix to sing Fricka in Das Rheingold.

Mikko Franck began to play the violin at the age of five and entered Helsinki's Sibelius Academy in 1992, subsequently studying in New York, Israel and Sweden.