Marjukka Tepponen

Artist Manager

Ingunn Sighvatsdóttir

ingunn@orlob.net +49 173 2067821

General Management

“As far as the musical interpretation of Violetta is concerned, Marjukka Tepponen towers above everyone else on opening night.” (Der Standard) This was the unanimous sentiment in the press, echoed in various forms following Marjukka Tepponen’s return to the floating stage of the Bregenz Festival in summer 2026. With her “luxurious all-round soprano,” her “expressive voice” (Bachtrack) and her “profound, agile assurance” (Kleine Zeitung), she was hailed as “the outstanding singer and the evening’s dramatic focal point” (Vorarlberg Online).

Following her success in La traviata in Bregenz, the Finnish soprano will be seen at the Dresdner Semperoper in the 2026/27 season once again as Micaela in Carmen, as well as, for the first time, as Katerina in the new production of The Greek Passion and as Nedda in Pagliacci. She will also make her debut as Chrysothemis in the new production of Elektra at Oper Graz and will be heard in concerts in Finland with Britten’s Les Illuminations and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.

Since the 2024/25 season, Marjukka Tepponen has been a regular guest at the Semperoper as part of a residency contract and has already appeared there as Margherita in Boito’s Mefistofele, Mimì in La bohème, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Tatjana in Eugen Onegin, Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, Micaela in Carmen, and Liù in Turandot.

She also maintains a close relationship with the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, where she is regularly heard in important roles in her repertoire. Her roles at the FNO include, among others, Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, Nedda in Pagliacci, Corinna in Il viaggio a Reims, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Woglinde in Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung, Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Mimì in La bohème, Violetta in La traviata, as well as the leading roles in the world premieres of the Finnish operas “Jää” — “Ice” — (J. Kuusisto) and “Indigo” (Toppinen/Kivilaakso).

She is also a regular guest at the renowned Savonlinna Opera Festival, where she has been heard, among other roles, as Micaela in Carmen, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Marguerite in Faust, in Mozart’s Messe in c-moll, and most recently as Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.

Highlights of past seasons also include her debut at the MET as Tatjana in Eugen Onegin, Elisabetta in Don Carlo in Tampere, her role debuts as Elettra in Mozart’s Idomeneo at Oper Graz and in the title roles of Madama Butterfly (Oper Frankfurt) and Katia Kabanova (Oper Graz), as Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro in Turku (Finland), as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Mimì in La bohème in Rijeka (Croatia), Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Tatjana in Eugene Onegin and Contessa in Nozze di Figaro at Seattle Opera, her Micaela in Carmen, as well as her successful debut as Liù in Turandot at the Bregenzer Festspiele under Paolo Carignani and directed by Marco Arturo Marelli.

In the concert field, she has sung, among others, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Münchner Symphoniker, the orchestra of the Finnish National Opera, and the Dresdner Festspielorchester; Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater (under Christoph König), as well as Uuno Klami’s Psalmus (under Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez), all with the RTVE in Madrid; a concert performance of Eugene Onegin/Tatjana with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon; Sibelius’s Kullervo with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Helsinki; as well as Beethoven’s c-Moll-Messe in Tampere. Most recently, she made her debut with Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with Göteborgs Symfoniker.

Marjukka Tepponen can be heard on several CD recordings, including a recording of Gounod’s Faust/Marguerite at the Rijeka Opera under Ville Matvejeff (Naxos, 2019) and an aria album featuring Mozart, bel canto, and French repertoire.

Marjukka Tepponen began taking piano lessons at the age of 5. She began her vocal training in her hometown of Kuopio and continued it at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Marjut Hannula and with Hilde Zadek in Vienna. She quickly achieved success in singing competitions such as the International Mirjam Helin Competition in Helsinki and the competition in Lappeenranta, where she won first prize.

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Artist Manager

Ingunn Sighvatsdóttir

ingunn@orlob.net +49 173 2067821

General Management

"At the premiere, Finnish soprano Marjukka Tepponen will take on the lead role. With her expressive voice, her empathetic nature, and her believable portrayal of the conflict between the fear of death and the hope for a better life, she is a captivating Violetta."

- Bachtrack

"Marjukka Tepponen proved an exceptionally compelling Violetta, offering a portrayal that supplied precisely the emotional immediacy the production itself occasionally denied. This was no mere exhibition of vocal athleticism, despite negotiating the formidable demands of “Sempre libera” with impressive assurance. Tepponen combined agility with warmth, lyrical radiance with dramatic conviction and technical security with unaffected sincerity. Her voice possessed sufficient brilliance for the first act while acquiring increasing richness and emotional depth as the tragedy unfolded. Above all, she succeeded in making Violetta profoundly human."

- Operawire

"The Finnish soprano, who had previously performed in Bregenz (as Liu in 2015), but whom we are discovering tonight, possesses a voice rich in harmonics and a warm middle register, with just the right amount of vibrato to convey the most heart-wrenching moments, and a high-quality vocal technique that allows her, in particular, to execute a magnificent note—first diminished, then augmented, and finally diminished again—during her death at the end of her final aria. But she has many other qualities, notably power, perfection in both staccato and legato high notes, and, what’s more, a perfect harmony with the sound system, which suits her voice type perfectly."

- Forum Opera