Hannu Niemelä

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.

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.