Mika Nisula, tenori

Mika Nisula (synt.1978) on kohonnut lyhyessä ajassa lupaavavimmaksi nuoreksi suomalaiseksi tenoriksi. Teuvalla syntynyt Nisula opiskeli laulua vuosina 2000-2005 Panula-opistossa ja vuoden 2005 syksystä lähtien Etelä-Pohjanmaan opistossa Seinäjoella. Hänen opettajanaan on toiminut koko ajan puolalaissyntyinen baritoni Romuald Podlesny. Hän on myös säännöllisesti osallistunut prof. Ryszard Karczykowskin mestarikursseille vuodesta 2004 lähtien. 
Nisula on saavuttanut menestystä useissa kotimaisissa laulukilpailuissa. Näistä mainittakoon 3. sija Kangasniemen laulukilpailuissa ja Jyväskylän kansainvälisissä tenorikilpailuissa, 2. sija Lohjan tenorikilpailuissa; nämä kaikki vuonna 2005. Seuraavana vuonna hän voitti Timo Mustakallio-laulukilpailun Savonlinnassa. Kansainvälisistä sijoituksista mainittakoon finaalipaikka Stanislaw Moniuszko-laulukilpailuissa Varsovassa 2007.Lappeenrannan valtakunnalisissa laulukilpailuissa 2010 Nisula sai toisen palkinnon.

Marraskuussa 2011 Nisula sai toisen palkinnon kansainvälisissä  Altamura/Caruso laulukilpailussa New-Yorkissa. Nisula on esiintynyt omin konsertein sekä orkesterisolistina eri puolilla Suomea, Puolassa, Ranskassa ja Yhdysvalloissa. Kesällä 2008 Nisula piti pianistin Jouni Someron kanssa soolokonsertin Savonlinnan Oopperajuhlilla. Itä-Savo otsikoi konsertin arvostelun "Tenorivelho valloitti Savonlinna-salissa" 
Nisula debytoinut New Yorkissa laulaen Canion roolin I Pagliaccista sekä Turiddun roolin oopperasta Cavalleria Rusticana, Maestro Anton Coppola johdolla. Tampereella Mozartin Don Giovannissa (Don Ottavio), Vaasassa Offenbachin Orfeus Manalassa (Orfeus) sekä Seinäjoella Mozartin Röystö Lakeurelta (Belmonte).
Tuleviin oopperarooleihin kuuluvat mm. Peppe (Pajatso, Suomen Kansallisoopperassa) ja Il Duca (Rigoletto, New Yorkissa).

Mika Nisula on julkaissut Jouni Someron kanssa neljä levyä: Storia D'amore (FCRCD-9721) Armolaulu (FCRCD-9725) Taas kaikki kauniit muistot (FCRCD-9726) ja Schumann & Liszt Lieder (FCRCD-9734).   Levyt ovat keränneet hyvin positiivisiä arvioita.


Fanfare Magazine 6/2012 :

LISZT Petrarch Sonnets. Bist du! Du bist wie eine Blume. Ich liebe dich. Es muß ein Wunderbares sein. SCHUMANN Dichterliebe • Mika Nisula (tenor); Jouni Somero (pn) • FC 9734 (74:58)
Put this CD on, and if within 30 seconds you're not saying to yourself, "Holy cow! what a voice!," there's something seriously wrong with your hearing. If, within three minutes, you're not further saying to yourself, "Damn, can this guy phrase, and interpret, and just listen to that vocal control, the way he colors his tones!," you need to put this magazine down and go read Hot Rods or Ladies' Home Journal. It is so very rare that I have the pleasure of discovering and announcing a truly major talent, but Mika Nisula is one of those. This is, without question, one of the biggest, darkest tenor voices you'll ever hear singing Lieder in your life. He sounds like a young Jon Vickers, but a young Vickers with a sweeter timbre and even greater control of his resources. Nisula gets into the heart of his lyrics in a way that one associates only with the very greatest Lieder singers, such as Fischer-Dieskau, Hotter, Schiøtz, Pears, and Tauber (yes, that Tauber), and from the standpoint of both vocal resources and control of the voice, he can outsing them all. His performances of the Liszt Lieder are virtually perfect, marred only by the merest hint of a flutter in the soft sustained notes of "Es muß ein Wunderbares sein," surely one of the composer's most beautiful and poetic songs. But the acid test is, was, and always will be, the Dichterliebe, particularly as he is facing down such legends as Schiøtz, Souzay (1956, with Cortot), and Fischer-Dieskau, not to mention Thomas Hampson and his family-sized Dichterliebe with 20 songs instead of the usual 16. I'm not terribly fond of Nisula's slow tempos, which to me sound dangerously close to ponderous, particularly as all the other singers find poetry in it at quicker speeds. He also, oddly, takes long pauses between the first four songs, which are traditionally sung as a group with only short luftpausen between them. But he does a very fine job on many of the songs, though not all. When he reaches "Ich grolle nicht," which is only really halfway through, he begins to have interpretive problems, and these also show themselves in some of the later songs as well. Souzay or Hampson would be my recommendation for a first choice (if you can find the Souzay, which currently appears to be out of print). I am upset by the lack of song texts as well. Dichterliebe is well enough known by the majority of collectors that it might not matter so much, but the Liszt songs are not that well known or oft-recorded. Naturally, in a Lieder recital this good, a large portion of the praise must also go to the accompanist. Jouni Somero is an unusual accompanist for our modern era, a player with a rich, full, deep-in-the-keys style that gives full support to Nisula both musically and tonally, complementing his unusually rich voice with wonderful sensitivity. This is an auspicious first hearing, for me, of this remarkably talented tenor. Lynn René Bayley

Kuntele näyte Armolaulu-levyltä http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJCjvC-QG6U