“To study opera we have to study more than operas.”
Nicholas Till
Dr. Liisamaija Hautsalo is a Finnish musicologist working as an Academy of Finland Research Fellow at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. Her five-year project, The Politics of Equality in Finnish Opera (2017–2022), explores Finnish opera in the context of equality, the primary value of the Finnish welfare society, understanding opera as a political and societal phenomenon. Hautsalo was awarded her PhD from the University of Helsinki in 2008 for a dissertation exploring Kaija Saariaho’s (b. 1952) first opera L’amour de loin from the perspective of musical semantics, and is now a Docent at the same university. As a researcher, she is passionate about opera and opera studies. In addition to her expertise in contemporary opera analysis, opera theory, musical semantics, and topical theory, she also continues her research on Kaija Saariaho’s vocal music.
Photo © AJ Savolainen