HANNA RANTALA

Biography

Finnish soprano Hanna Rantala won the second prize at the Lappeenranta Singing competition in 2010 and launched her career in 2011 when she became a member of the Finnish National Opera soloist ensemble. Since then she has firmly established herself as an artist of unique quality with a sonorous beautiful voice. During the following four years in the ensemble of the Finnish National Opera she performed numerous leading roles. In addition to opera her repertoire includes a wide selection of oratorio and lied music. As of 2015 she has been working as a freelancer. 

Ms. Rantala’s leading roles in the Finnish National Opera include Anne Trulove (Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress), Susanna (Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro), Vixen (Janacek: Cunning Little Vixen), Gilda (Verdi: Rigoletto), Adele (Strauss: Die Fledermaus), Norina (Donizetti: Don Pasquale) and Adina (Donizetti: L’Elisir d’Amore).

During her maternity leave in 2018 she covered the female lead of Veljeni Vartija (My Brother’s Keeper) by Olli Kortekangas, an opera commissioned for Tampere Opera. She also covered the role of Antonia in the Finnish National Opera production of Tales of Hoffman (Offenbach). This season Rantala makes her return to the FNO stage with the soprano solos in CircOpera and Echo (Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos) and she will be cover for the role of Donna Anna (Mozart: Don Giovanni).

Rantala has regularly appeared as guest artist at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, most recently as Gilda in the Festival’s new production of Rigoletto in 2017. Her other roles in Savonlinna include Pamina (Mozart: Magic Flute), Frasquita (Bizet: Carmen) and Aljeja (Janacek: From the House of the Dead). Ms. Rantala has made two successful last minute jump-ins at the Royal Danish Opera; as Sophie (Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier) and Gilda. 

Ms. Rantala’s concert repertoire includes J. S. Bach’s passions, the great romantic oratorios, Orff’s Carmina Burana as well as Lieder of the Late Romantic up to the Early Modern period. Her voice teachers over the years include Monica Groop, Elisabeth Werres, Tom Krause, Barbara Bonney and Ritva Laamanen. She graduated from the Sibelius Academy Opera department in 2014.

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