Juha Uusitalo Bass-Baritone

"Magnificent is the only adjective I can find for Juha Uusitalo’s Scarpia. This bass-baritone can obviously do anything. He has a tremendous power but also a lightness of touch that is just as impressive".

Juha Uusitalo, born in Finland, started his musical career as a flautist before emerging as a major vocal talent as Verdi’s Falstaff in 1997 at the Finnish National Opera where he is currently a contract member. It was in 1999 at the Tirol Festival that Juha Uusitalo sang his first Wanderer in Wagner’s Siegfried with Gustav Kuhn, an acclaimed performance that brought him to international attention.

Juha’s recent seasons have included his Paris debut at the Chatelet as Don Pizarro, a role which also took him to San Francisco Opera and Palau de las Artes in Valencia with Zubin Mehta (recorded for DVD); the title role of Aulis Salinnen’s The Horseman at Savonlinna’s Opera Festival and in Moscow; Scarpia to Karita Mattila’s Tosca in a new production at the Finnish National Opera; his role debut as Macbeth at the Savonlinna Opera Festival; the High Priest in Samson and Dalilah in San Francisco and his Los Angeles Opera debut as Kurwenal. Juha also embarked on two new productions of Wagner’s Ring Cycle: at Vienna’s State Opera, conducted by Franz Welser-Moest, and at the Palau de las Arts, Valencia as a co-production with Florence, conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Current and future projects include Juha Uusitalo’s debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera (Salome) as well as Siegfried in Florence, complete Ring Cycles in Vienna and Valencia and Wagner’s Dutchman at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper. In concert, Juha Uusitalo will appear on tour with the London Philharmonia/Esa-Pekka Salonen and sing Die Walkuere in concert with Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra.

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