Dramatic soprano Johanna Rusanen is one of the most distinguished Finnish singers of her generation. Born into a family of musicians in Kuopio, Finland, she earned her Master’s degree at the Sibelius Academy under the guidance of the renowned Wagnerian soprano Anita Välkki. She continued her studies in Berlin and Vienna, and was a member of the young artist program at Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1998 to 2000.
Rusanen gained national attention after winning the Timo Mustakallio Singing Competition in 1995 and the National Singing Competition in Lappeenranta in 1996. She received the Martti Talvela Scholarship in 1997 and the Karita Mattila Prize in 2001.
Since her debut at the Finnish National Opera and the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1997, she has performed in leading roles at prestigious houses including the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (in a Savonlinna Opera Festival production), Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro Municipal in São Paulo, and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
Her repertoire includes dramatic roles such as Puccini’s Tosca and Turandot, Verdi’s Leonora (La forza del destino), Wagner’s Venus (Tannhäuser), Ortrud (Lohengrin), and Isolde (Tristan und Isolde). She has also portrayed Brünnhilde in Ring des Nibelungen under Hannu Lintu, and Chrysothemis in Elektra at Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse.
In Finnish opera, Rusanen has been acclaimed for her portrayals of strong female characters such as Riitta in The Last Temptations, Anna in Aulis Sallinen’s Ratsumies, and Aalo in Tauno Pylkkänen’s The Wolf’s Bride. She also sang the lead role of Old Aliide in the world premiere of Purge by Jüri Reinvere, based on Sofi Oksanen’s novel.
As a concert and oratorio soloist, she has performed widely across Europe, the United States, Japan, Chile, and North Korea. Jean Sibelius’s Kullervo has become one of her signature works, with recent performances at the Prague Spring Festival, Tokyo, Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival, and the Sibelius Festival in Finland.
Her artistry was recognized with a Grammy Award in 2017 for her performance in Penderecki Conducts Penderecki.
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