Hannu Niemelä

A woman on the verge of divorce hopes to shed her excess kilos over the weekend at a much-lauded sanatorium, until her husband checks into the same facility. Composed by jazz pianist Iiro Rantala and written by best-selling novelist Minna Lindgren, Sanatorio Express is a side-splittingly funny opera about modern neuroses and relationships. A great introduction to opera for first-timers, it will also please aficionados with its deep connection to the tradition of comic opera.

During the final years of the World War II, Finnish sergeant Myllykoski and his fellow soldiers are forced to join the notorious Waffen-SS on a mission to find a mythical medieval chalice in the Soviet Union.