Anybody who likes cool summer weather, beautiful rural scenery and some of the world's finest classical music should head for the lake district of Finland.
Finland has more than 50 music festivals, from jazz in Pori on the west coast to chamber music in Kuhmo, reachable by tiny roads in the east-central part of the country.The Savonlinna Opera Festival, July 4-Aug. 2, is an easy drive from Mikkeli. It's held in Olavinlinna Castle, built in 1475 and surrounded by a moat.
Operas this summer are "Tannhauser," "La Forza del Destino," and "Cavalleria Rusticana" paired with "Pagliacci."
The Covent Garden Opera, visiting Savonlinna from London, will present "Peter Grimes," sung in English, and Verdi's little-known "I Masnadieri" with the great Siberian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the cast.
Ticket prices in Mikkeli are from $8 to $76 and in Savonlinna from $36 to $110.
Mikkeli and Savonlinna are north and east of Helsinki, which is on the south coast of Finland. Mikkeli is about a five-hour drive from the Helsinki airport and Savonlinna another hour farther.
It's possible to get from Helsinki to Mikkeli and Savonlinna by train or plane. There's an after-opera, 12:15 a.m. flight from Savonlinna to Helsinki.
There's plenty to see while sight-seeing with a car during the day: lake after lake, some with public swimming beaches, some with mosquitoes; canals; fields blooming yellow; windmills and sawmills; haystacks; hiking trails; people washing rugs in lakes and drying them on permanent lakeside racks; people on rural paved bicycle paths on in-line skates, propelling themselves with ski poles; lakeside vacation houses, often without electricity because summer evenings stay light.
Hirvensalmi (in Rural District Mikkeli) has a fish ladder and the largest alder avenue in Finland.
On a tour boat out of Mikkeli, you can see prehistoric red ocher paintings on a smooth rock face rising out of the Vuoksi River.
In the towns, people ride bicycles and walk around talking on mobile telephones and eating peas instead of ice cream cones. Crosswalks have sound signals for the blind.
Daily markets in Mikkeli and Savonlinna combine flea markets with flowers and food, including piles of peas in the pod and a delicious breakfast bread called lortsy.
Most people speak English, and even those who don't are helpful.
Savonlinna has attractive hotels within walking distance of Olavinlinna Castle. Two great restaurants are in country houses just outside of town.
Rauhalinna, outside Savonlinna, was built in 1900 in Russian style with lace-like wood carvings by a commandant of the czar for his Finnish wife.
Olavinlinna Castle, which seats 2,233, has a tarpaulin roof to keep out the rain. Evenings can get cold in the castle's great hall. A wool shawl or blanket as well as a sweater or jacket is a good idea. The stone floors also are uneven; anybody needing low heels, glasses or canes should put those needs above vanity for the evening.
The stage, backed by a medieval stone wall, is long and shallow. Designers are forced to be clever to use it effectively and they do, building long balconies or making circular inclined ramps which, for instance, the pilgrims in "Tannhauser" use as a mountain path.
The evening combining "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "Pagliacci" remains set in Italian villages but updated to the present.
Throughout both operas, there's a lot of modern dance, depicting the emotion in the music.