Tapani Valtasaari (Baritone)

Born: March 12, 1941 - Helsinki, Finland
Died: July 5, 2004 - Ruokolahti, Finland (car accident)

The Finnish baritone, Tapani Valtasaari, graduated as a teacher in 1966 and worked first as an elementary school teacher. The he studied singing with Onerva Rautiainen, Lauri Lahtinen and Lea Piltti in Helsinki; further training with Clemens Kaiser-Breme in Essen. He received his singer diploma in 1970. In 1972 he won first prize at the national singing competition in Lappeenranta. He was a founding member of Lahteen Suomen, which were the music classes in Finland based on Kodály method of music education, and served as their teacher in 1966-1970. At the same time, in 1965-1971, he worked as a soloist at the Suomen Kansallisoopperan .

In 1971 Tapani Valtasaari made his debut at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki as Tartaglia in König Hirsch by H.W. Henze. He has since remained a member of this opera house, where he appeared in variety of roles from the lyrical as well as the dramatic baritone repertoire. His major roles included Don Alfonso's Cosi fan tutte, the Count and Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Scarpia in Tosca by Puccini, Renato in Masked Ball by Verdi, Iago in Othello, Germont-père in La Traviata, Count di Luna in Il Trovatore, Wotan in Rheingold and Figaro in Rossini's Barber of Seville. In 1995, he appeared there in performances of the opera Die letzten Versuchungen by J. Kokkonen.

Tapani Valtasaari made guest appearances as an opera soloist in Stockholm, Oslo, London, Wiesbaden, Zürich, Moscow, Leningrad, Tallinn, at the New York’s Metropolitan, and at the Berlin and Edinburgh and Savonlinna Festivals. He appeared also in TV adaptations of opera. He had a successful career also as a concert singer, and sang the bass solos in major church music works, in addition to his extensive concert repertoire, which included the well-known solo Lieder cycles.

Source: Operissimo Website, English translation by Aryeh Oron (November 2010); Savon Siemen Website, English translation by Aryeh Oron (November 2010)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (November 2010)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Reijo Norio

Bass

BWV 244 [sung in Finnish]

Links to other Sites

Valtasaari Tapani - baritono (Operissimo) [German]
Vuoden 2002 Collan Lied -päivien esiintyjät (Savon Siemen) [Finnish]

Biography for Tapani Valtasaari (IMDB)