Martti Wallén (20 November 1948 – 29 June 2024) was a Finnish operatic

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

singer. Born in Helsinki, he performed both internationally and in his native country where he was a visiting soloist at the

Finnish National Opera The Finnish National Opera and Ballet (; ) is a Finnish opera company and ballet company based in Helsinki. It is headquartered in the Opera House on the coast of the Töölönlahti bay in Töölö, which opened in 1993, and is state-owned throu ...

for many years. He created the role of the Judge in the world premiere of Aulis Sallinen's '' The Horseman'' at the

Savonlinna Opera Festival Savonlinna Opera Festival () is held annually in the city of Savonlinna in Finland. The Festival takes place at the medieval Olavinlinna (St. Olaf's Castle), built in 1475. The castle is located amid spectacular lake scenery. Origin The birth ...

in 1975. He was a member of the

Royal Swedish Opera Royal Swedish Opera () is an opera and ballet company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Location and environment The building is located in the centre of Sweden's capital, Stockholm, in the borough of Norrmalm (borough), Norrmalm, on the eastern si ...

from 1975 to 2000.

Life and career

Wallén was born in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

on 28 November 1948. He initially studied in an Orthodox theological seminary. After completing his studies as a

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. Cantor as a profession generally refers to those leading a Jewish congregation, although it also applies to the lead singer or choir director in Christian contexts. ...

in 1968, he studied voice with Pekka Salomaa at the

Sibelius Academy The Sibelius Academy (, ) is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki ...

in Helsinki from 1970 to 1975, with Torsten Föllinger in Stockholm and Luigi Ricci and Achille Braschi in Rome. He served as the cantor for the Helsinki Orthodox congregation from 1968 to 1972. Wallèn made his operatic debut as Colline in ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...

'' in 1973 as a soloist of the

. He was also a soloist at the

, where he performed the role of the Judge in the world premiere of Aulis Sallinen's '' The Horseman'' in 1975. The performance, with

Matti Salminen Matti Kalervo Salminen (born 7 July 1945) is a Finnish operatic bass, now retired, who has sung at the most important opera houses of the world, including the Metropolitan and Bayreuth Festival. He is distinguished by an imposing figure a ...

in the title role, was recorded. In 1975 Wallén joined the

in Stockholm, first appearing as Sparafucile in Verdi's ''

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had c ...

''. From 1980 to 1982 he was also a soloist at the

Musiktheater im Revier Musiktheater im Revier (MiR) (Music Theatre in the Ruhr) is the venue for performing opera, operetta, musical theatre and ballet in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. It opened on 15 December 1959; it is listed since 1997 as a protected cultural monument. T ...

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...

. When the new opera house in Helsinki was opened in 1992, he appeared as the Father in Sallinen's '' Kullervo'', which was premiered in Los Angeles. He remained a member of the Royal Swedish Opera until 2000 and then worked freelance until 2004, when he performed last with the Royal Opera, at the

Drottningholm Palace Theatre The Drottningholm Palace Theatre () is an opera house located at Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the few 18th century theatres in Europe that is still used as a theatre with its original stage machinery. Currently, the r ...

. Wallén appeared as a soloist internationally, including at the

Bolshoi Theatre The Bolshoi Theatre ( rus, Большо́й теа́тр, r=Bol'shoy teatr, p=bɐlʲˈʂoj tʲɪˈat(ə)r, t=Grand Theater) is a historic opera house in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové. Before the October Revolutio ...

in Moscow, in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, Brussels,

Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...

, at the Estonia Theatre in Tallinn, in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, Manchester and Leeds. He had also performed at the Helsinki Festival, the Naantali Festival, and several other festivals and recitals in the Nordic countries.

Personal life

Wallén had two children, Herman Wallén (tenor), and Ida Wallén (mezzo-soprano), who both work as professional singers in Germany. From 2004 he lived with his wife Lola in Sineu in the interior of the island of

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

. He said in an interview that he liked walking his dog, reading history books, listening to music and surfing the internet. He said he was up to date with Spanish music because his wife was "very good with the guitar and sevillanas". Wallèn died in Sineu on 29 June 2024, at the age of 75.

Repertoire

Among Wallén's most important roles were: * Beethoven: Rocco, Pizarro, Fernando (''

Fidelio ''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Opus number, Op. 72, is the sole opera by German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. The libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of ...

'') * Janácek: Dikoj (''

Káťa Kabanová ''Káťa Kabanová'' (also known in various spellings including ''Katia'', ''Katja'', ''Katya'', and ''Kabanowa'') is an opera in three acts, with music by Leoš Janáček to a libretto by the composer based on ''The Storm (Ostrovsky), The Storm'' ...

'') * Maxwell Davies: Arthur ('' The Lighthouse'') * Mozart: Bartolo (''Le nozze di Figaro''), Don Alfonso (''

Così fan tutte (''Women are like that, or The School for Lovers''), Köchel catalogue, K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written ...

''), Leporello, Commendatore, title role (''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...

''), Sarastro (''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...

'') * Musorgsky: Pimen ('' Boris Godunov''), Gypsy ('' The Fair at Sorochyntsi'') * Rossini: Basilio ('' Il barbiere di Siviglia'') * Strauss: Ochs (''

Der Rosenkavalier (''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from Louvet de Couvrai's novel ''Les amours du cheva ...

''), Geisterbote (''

Die Frau ohne Schatten ' (''The Woman without a Shadow''), Op. 65, is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was written between 1911 and either 1915 or 1917. When it premiered at the V ...

'') * Tchaikovsky: Gremin (''

Eugene Onegin ''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' (, Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-reform Russian: Евгеній Онѣгинъ, романъ въ стихахъ, ) is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. ''Onegin'' is considered a classic of ...

''), Archbishop ('' The Maid of Orleans'') * Verdi: Walter ('' Luisa Miller''), Banquo (''

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

''), Sparafucile, Monterone (''

''), Ferrando ('' Il trovatore''), Pater Guardian ('' La forza del destino''), Philip II ('' Don Carlos''), Falstaff * Wagner: Daland ('' Der fliegende Holländer''), Landgraf ('' Tannhäuser''), Pogner (''

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...

''), King Marke (''

Tristan und Isolde ''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is a music drama in three acts by Richard Wagner set to a German libretto by the composer, loosely based on the medieval 12th-century romance ''Tristan and Iseult'' by Gottfried von Stras ...

'', Fasolt (''

Das Rheingold ''Das Rheingold'' (; ''The Rhinegold''), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86A, is the first of the four epic poetry, epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Literary cycle, cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nib ...

''), Hunding (''

Die Walküre (; ''The Valkyrie''), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86B, is the second of the four epic poetry, epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Literary cycle, cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was ...

'') Wallén performed several other roles in Finnish contemporary operas: * Bergman: Peddler ('' Det sjungande trädet'') * Kokkonen: Paavo Ruotsalainen (''

The Last Temptations ''The Last Temptations'' () is an opera in two acts by Joonas Kokkonen to a libretto by Lauri Kokkonen. Along with Leevi Madetoja's '' Pohjalaisia'' and Aarre Merikanto's '' Juha'', it is considered one of the most important Finnish operas. ...

'') * Ilkka Kuusisto: Muminpappan (''Muminopera'') *

Leevi Madetoja Leevi Antti Madetoja (; 17 February 1887 – 6 October 1947) was a Finns, Finnish composer, music criticism, music critic, conductor (music), conductor, and teacher of the Romantic music, late-Romantic and modernism (music), early-mode ...

: Länsman (''(Österbottningarna'') *

Pehr Henrik Nordgren Pehr Henrik Nordgren (19 January 1944 – 25 August 2008) was a Finnish composer. Life Pehr Henrik Nordgren was born in Saltvik, Åland, on 19 January 1944. received composition lessons starting from 1958 in Helsinki and studied musicology at t ...

: Munken (''Den svarta Munken'') * Rautavaara: Salomon ('' Tietäjien lahja'') * Sallinen: Judge ('' The Horseman''), Kalervo ('' Kullervo'')

Recordings

In addition to several recordings of Finnish Christmas songs and Orthodox church music, Wallén recorded: * Sallinen: '' The Horseman'' (as the Judge) – Savonlinna Opera Festival Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Ulf Söderblom. Label:

Finlandia ''Finlandia'', Op. 26, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 and revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the R ...

* Bergman: '' Det sjungande trädet'' (as the Peddler) – Tapiola Chamber Choir, Dominante Choir, Finnish National Opera Orchestra conducted by Ulf Söderblom. Label: Ondine * Verdi: '' Don Carlos'' (as the Old Monk) – Royal Stockholm Opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Alberto Hold-Garrido. Label:

Naxos Naxos (; , ) is a Greek island belonging to the Cyclades island group. It is the largest island in the group. It was an important centre during the Bronze Age Cycladic Culture and in the Ancient Greek Archaic Period. The island is famous as ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wallen, Martti 1948 births 2024 deaths 20th-century Finnish male opera singers Operatic basses Singers from Helsinki Sibelius Academy alumni Finnish basses 21st-century Finnish male opera singers