The artist
In focus.
- Freelancer
- Finnish National Opera (frequent guest since 2016); Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Dutch National Opera; Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Staatsoper Hamburg; Theater Basel.
Finnish tenor Markus Nykänen is a freelance soloist and a frequent guest at Finnish National Opera, where his leading roles include Rodolfo in La bohème, Alfredo in La traviata, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus. His announced Helsinki engagements for 2027 include Roberto in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda and a return as Rodolfo.
Mr. Nykänen made his Festival d’Aix-en-Provence debut in 2021, creating the role of the Groom in Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence. He continued with the production at Finnish National Opera in 2022 and at the Royal Opera House in London and Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam in 2023. His work in new opera also includes a leading role in the world premiere of Kivioja and Toppinen’s Indigo and Il tenore calmo in the premiere of Iiro Rantala’s Sanatorio Express, both in Helsinki.
His recent Finnish National Opera repertoire encompasses Chevalier de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, Antti Hanka in Madetoja’s Pohjalaisia and Camille de Rosillon in Die lustige Witwe. Other roles include Don José, Victorin in Die tote Stadt, Froh in Das Rheingold and Ferrando in the Mozart adaptation Covid fan tutte.
From 2012 to 2014, Mr. Nykänen was a member of OperAvenir, Theater Basel’s young artist programme. There he sang Mengone in Lo speziale, Spoletta in Tosca, Triquet in Eugene Onegin and the Sun in The Indian Queen. He returned as a guest in 2014/15 as Cassio in Otello. Subsequent engagements at Staatsoper Hamburg included Iopas in Les Troyens under Kent Nagano, Remendado in Carmen and the Hunchback in Die Frau ohne Schatten.
His concert repertoire includes the requiems of Mozart and Verdi, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Haydn’s Nelson Mass. He sang Mozart’s Requiem with Sinfonia Lahti in 2025 and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra in April 2026. Other concert partners include the Basel Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Jyväskylä Sinfonia. He has worked with conductors including Kent Nagano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Susanna Mälkki and Sakari Oramo.
Before his operatic career, Mr. Nykänen worked extensively as an actor and musical theatre performer at Theater Viirus, Klockriketeatern, Svenska Teatern and Wasa Teater. His musical training began in Espoo’s boys’ choir and at Kungsvägens Musikinstitut, followed by vocal studies with Susanna Eken, Sherman Lowe, Mariella Devia and Kiri Te Kanawa. He was a finalist in the Lappeenranta Singing Competition.