Finnish soprano Jenni Lättilä has a dramatic, hall-filling tone with a natural, alluring vocal color. A true Wagnerian soprano, she is a skilled and intelligent musician with crisp diction and a keen understanding of even the most challenging modern repertoire.
In 2022/23 season Jenni performed in the world premiere of Jukka Linkola’s Hiljaiset perivät maan at the Ilmajoki Opera Festival in Finland. She has also been performing lieder in concert and in two productions of improvised opera in Helsinki. In 2019 and again in 2020, Ms. Lättilä appeared with the Finnish National Opera in the role of Adele Bergman, a role she created, in the World Premiere of Jaakko Kuusisto’s Jää based on Ulla-Lena Lundberg’s award winning novel Ice. In previous seasons with the FNO, she has performed Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Podtochina in The Nose, the dual roles of Aufseherin and Vertraute in Elektra (while covering Elektra), Gutrune and Dritte Norn in Götterdämmerung, Gerhilde in Die Walküre, the leading role of Popova in William Walton’s The Bear (premiere in 2013), and covered Agathe in Der Freischütz and Isolde in Tristan und Isolde. With Jyväskylä Opera she appeared as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera and as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. With the Turku Philharmonic under the baton of Leif Segerstam she performed The Woman in Schönberg’s one-act monodrama Erwartung. At the Urkuyö & Aaria Festival she sang Lady of Ruotus in Rautavaara’s Marjatta, the lowly maiden. While at the renowned Sibelius Academy, Ms. Lättillä performed the roles of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Lady Billows in Albert Herring, and Elisabetta in scenes from Don Carlo.
On the concert stage, Ms. Lättilä has performed Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Finnish National Opera Orchestra and Choir under the baton of Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with the St. Michel Strings in Mikkeli, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Lohja City Orchestra in Helsinki and Lohja, Bach’s Johannes Passion, Dvořak’s Mass in D, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras, and Sibelius’ Kullervo, Luonnotar, and Orchestral Songs. She has presented the World Premieres of Paavo Heininen’s Kaksi vakavaa laulua (Four Serious Songs) with the Lappeenranta City Orchestra, Uljas Pulkkis’ Celestial Mechanics at the Helsinki Music House, and Markus Virtanen’s Triptych at the Helsinki Organ Summer Festival. In 2016/17, she sang two solo recitals: the World Premiere of Pasi Lyytikäinen’s Two Songs at the Pasimusic Festival in Iisalmi, and her Doctoral Dissertation Defence at the Helsinki Music House.
With degrees in Linguistics (University of Helsinki), Church Music and Opera (Sibelius Academy), Jenni Lättilä has worked as a voice teacher, conductor, choirmaster, church organist, and academic research assistant, in addition to her growing performance résumé. She has been awarded prizes and grants in Europe and the United States, including: 3rd Prize in the 2013 Gerda Lissner Competition (Wagner Division), the 2010 Lauritz Melchior Competition (Denmark), the 2009 Bayreuth Stipendium from the Finnish Wagner Society, the 2008 Modern Music Prize in the Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition (Sweden), and the 2008 Lappeenranta National Singing Competition (Finland).
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Beethoven |
R. Strauss |
Berg
“Linkola composed a magnificent mournful song for the hanged boy’s mother, in which Jenni Lättilä, who also played a great mother figure, exceled. (Jukka Linkola: The meek shall inherit the earth. World premiere, Ilmajoki Opera Festival).”
Vesa Sirén, Helsingin Sanomat 2022
“TIn the finale [of Beethoven’s 9th symphony, Leif Segerstam and the Turku Philharmonic orchestra] did not skimp on power. [--] In the well cooperating solo quartet, soprano Jenni Lättilä's high notes radiated with luminous intensity.”
Lauri Mäntysaari, Turun Sanomat 2017
“Jenni Lättilä's youthful yet dramatic voice suits well the early 1900's music full of expression, and it adapted both to the powerful exclamations full of joie de vivre, as well as the mystical murmurs. She savored on the long musical lines and interpreted the texts in a sensitive and playful way. I especially enjoyed the song "Your voice", where the orchestra rippled as the wistful fountain, as Ms. Lättilä was sighing her dreamy pianissimi.” (Szymanowski: Des Hafis Liebeslieder, Helsinki City Orchestra, conductor Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Helsinki Music House)
Auli Särkiö, Rondo Classic 2016
“Turku Philharmonics kicked off their 225th anniversary year with panache by providing a staged performance of this ultra-challenging classic of musical expressionism, with Jenni Lättilä in the leading role. Her performance made me wish that vocal soloists would more often have the courage needed for full stage presence in front of an orchestra. Already the soloist immersing herself totally into the work with full operatic bodily expression released new overwhelming energy from Erwartung.” (Schoenberg's Erwartung)
Auli Särkiö, RONDO CLASSIC, 2015
“Ms. Lättilä’s dramatic flux of voice, painting the inner landscape of the delusional Woman with a wide romantic brush but avoiding all heaviness and monotonousness. Ms. Lättilä’s downright enormous voice has a fine floating quality and – even surprising – vivaciousness, based on good text and unfailingly flowing legato line. Her Erwartung built on speech-like, yet vocally abundant stream of consciousness, which she colored with straight tones, altercations, metallic shouts and downy pianissimos.” (Schoenberg's Erwartung)
Auli Särkiö, RONDO CLASSIC, 2015
“Soprano Jenni Lättilä put her soul in the role of the anxious Woman all out, and threw herself (also literally) totally into the role. Ms. Lättilä’s soprano is not just a vivid jingle, but has great drama in it. Her voice has so much volume and solidity that she does not need to blast out with full force at all times, even the gentlest nuances carried extremely well over the orchestra.” (Schoenberg's Erwartung)
Tomi Norha, TURUN SANOMAT, 2015
“Jenni Lättilä (last minute replacement) easily filled the entire hall with her enormous voice, and was surely as radiant as Aino Ackte in the 1913 world-premiere (Luonnotar by Sibelius) in Gloucester, England… the intensity was all the more tactile.”
HUFVUDSTADSBLADET, 2012
“Wagner’s Ring was ended as magnificently as one could hope for. The Finnish National Opera (under Leif Segerstam) has assembled thirteen singers next to ideal for their roles. As the primus motor of evil we had the best Hagen in the world, Matti Salminen... Jenni Lättilä was vocally impressive, especially in her middle range, both as the Third Norn and Gutrune.”
HUFVUDSTADSBLADET, 2011
“The premiere quality Finnish singers: Matti Salminen as Hagen, Tommi Hakala as Gunther, and Jenni Lättilä as Gutrune sang in this extremely strong production of Götterdämmerung. The spectacle of Wagner’s Ring came to this well-deserved finale. Considering the profile of the Finnish National Opera it is a truly significant thing to be able to present the Ring at such a high artistic level. Conductor Leif Segerstam also seemed both confident and contented. This arduous undertaking has been a triumph, and as well, new Wagnerians have been inaugurated. The magic of the Ring lasts.”
SAVON SANOMAT, 2011
“A true surprise, and a rising star in the Ring of the Nibelungs is the young Jenni Lättilä, whose blonde appearance and the beautiful, carrying radiance of her well-rounded voice take her far beyond being a promising Wagnerian soprano.”
HELSINGIN SANOMAT, 2011
“The Jyväskylä production is a celebration of Lady Macbeth and the choir. Soprano Jenni Lättilä fulfills the dramatic requirements of her role splendidly, up to her gestures and – especially – expressions. Even the highest top notes are hit accurately, and open up gorgeously. The long- waited dramatic high point – the sleep-walking scene – shows also convincingly, that she has worked diligently to understand completely the inner motivations of her character.”
Jorma Pollari, KESKISUOMALAINEN
