The Red Line

The Red Line (Punainen viiva) is an opera in two acts with music by Aulis Sallinen to a libretto by the composer, which premiered on 30 November 1978 at the Finnish National Opera. Based on the 1909 novel Punainen viiva by Ilmari Kianto (1874–1970), the opera – like the novel – is set in 1907, a watershed year in Finnish history during which its first elections were held, leading eventually to Finnish independence in 1917. Performance history Outside Finland, the opera was performed at several European opera houses, including Sadler's Wells Theatre, London in June 1979, Göteborg and Stockholm in 1980, Zürich in 1981, Moscow, Leningrad and Tallinn in 1982, and in Osnabrück and Dortmund in May 1985, as well as at the Metropolitan Opera of New York in 1983. It has been revived several times in Helsinki and was recorded in November 1979 by Finlandia. A DVD of Finnish National Opera's 2007 stage production conducted by Mikko Franck has been issued by Ondine. Roles