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Finnish tenor Raimo Sirkiä is one of the most interesting dramatic tenors on the international scene. His powerful, warm-timbred voice lends itself equally well to Wagner´s Tannhäuser and Tristan as to Verdi´s Otello and Radames.

Raimo Sirkiä studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. In 1981 he won the Timo Mustakallio Competition and entered his first permanent opera house engagement at Kiel in Germany from 1983-85. At that time he concentrated mainly on lyric tenor roles but very soon widened his repertoire, including Italian spinto tenor roles.

From 1985 until 1991 Raimo Sirkiä was engaged at the Dortmund City Opera, where he sang all the major Italian roles, including Otello and Radames, roles that he has performed since then all over Europe. In addition to Italian repertoire, Raimo Sirkiä also sang his first Wagner roles – Erik, Parsifal and Walter von Stolzing.

Since 1990 Raimo Sirkiä has been a full-time member of the Finnish National Opera and since the season 1991-92 also at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. He sings at many of the leading opera houses of Europe. He is a regular guest at the Royal Opera in Stockholm and at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, where he was Artist of the Year in 1996. He has appeared at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, the Staatsoper Hamburg, the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Semper Oper Dresden, the Royal Opera in Copenhagen, the Royal Opera in Oslo, the Otello Festival in Cyprus, the Teatro Reggio del Torino, the Teatro Malibran in Venice, and the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth.

Raimo Sirkiä sang his first Tannhäuser at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in the summer of 1996. In the same season he debuted as Siegmund in Götz Friedrich´s new production of Wagner's Ring at the Finnish National Opera.

During recent years, Raimo Sirkiä has established himself as a prominent Wagner tenor. His triumph as Tristan at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein has brought further interest in him as a dramatic German tenor alongside his dramatic and Italian spinto roles. In 1999 Raimo Sirkiä sang his first Lohengrin at the Megaron in Athens, a role he repeated at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth in 2000.

Raimo Sirkiä is a regular concert soloist with the major orchestras of Scandinavia, where he is also a frequent recording artist. Mr. Sirkiä is Erik in an internationally cast video of  Der Fliegende Holländer recorded at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.

Raimo Sirkiä opened the year 2001 with Otello and Don Carlos at the Finnish National Opera and Otello in Vilnius. A production of Lohengrin followed in the Teatro Reggio di Torino.  At the Caesaria Festival, Mr. Sirkiä sang Don Alvaro, and then Aida and the Verdi Requiem at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.  A production of Tristan in Darmstadt in autumn was followed by performances of  Tosca, Il Trovatore and a new production of La Fanciulla West at the Finnish National Opera in the winter.

In 2002 Mr. Sirkiä sang Tristan at the Teatro Malibran in Venice, Trovatore, Tosca, and Fanciulla in Helsinki.  A role debut as Prince Galizin in Chowantschina at the Finnish National Opera was followed by gala performances of  Tannhäuser in Trier.

Plans for 2003 include Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West and Manrico in Il Trovatore at the Finnish National Opera, Macduff in Santiago de Chile and Tallinn as well as recording Fredrick Pacius’ Die Lorelei.

Raimo Sirkiä is the new artistic director of the Savonlinna Opera Festival beginning with the summer of 2003. 

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