Passengers at Helsinki Airport will be able to enjoy opera and ballet from 17 September 2024. Finavia and the Finnish National Opera and Ballet announced the collaboration by opening a visual and audio installation at the airport, where snippets of opera and ballet performed at the Opera House in Töölönlahti, Helsinki, are projected on one of the walls of the train station.
This installation, named Culture Stage, can be seen from the long escalators connecting the airport’s train station and terminal. Both departing and arriving passengers will be able to enjoy this cultural experience on their way to or from the terminal. The Culture Stage will also delight the tens of thousands of people who work in the airport area every day.
"The Culture Stage brings Finnish culture to Helsinki Airport and into a space that is open to everyone and free of charge. Just like culture, the airport is made for everyone, no matter where they come from. More than 15 million people travel through Helsinki Airport each year, and about one third of passengers come to the airport by train. With this collaboration, we can offer a unique travel experience to a very large number of passengers," says Ulla Serlenius, Finavia's Helsinki Airport Executive Director.
The Culture Stage consists of a 12-metre wide and 6.5-metre tall screen, on which opera and ballet scenes are projected with a video projector. Music essentially related to the performances will be used to create a soundscape in the space with speakers installed next to the screen.
Image: Swan Lake is one of the scenes displayed at the Culture Stage
The snippets of works shown are recordings of the Finnish National Opera and Ballet’s repertoire. This first collection to be shown includes the ballets Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty as well as the operas Tosca, Turandot and Don Giovanni. The screening takes about 20 minutes in total. The performances shown will be changed regularly.
"We want to offer our domestic and international repertoire to an ever wider audience, and the airport is an excellent and perhaps surprising place for this purpose. Opera and ballet can be enjoyed as short treats, and the huge wall feels like it was made for that," says Gita Kadambi, General Director of the Finnish National Opera and Ballet.
The Culture Stage joins the other art and experience installations at Helsinki Airport. The nature diorama Luoto in the arrivals hall of the airport and the immersive Aukio space in the gate area are also examples of Finland-inspired installations.
You can learn more about the repertoire of the Culture Stage here.
