Estonian National Opera (Rahvusooper Estonia) is the national opera company of Estonia. The company is based at the Estonia Theatre in Tallinn. The theatre has had several names throughout its existence. The latest one being "The Estonian National Opera", which was adopted in 1998. The company produces a lively and varied season which includes operas, ballets and operettas/musicals with over 500 people currently working at the Estonian National Opera.
The song and drama society "Estonia" was founded in 1870. This was the beginning of what has become the current-day Estonian National Opera (Estonian : Rahvusooper Estonia).
Play-acting was taken up in 1871, although theatre as a tradition did not really come into being until 1895, when the society began to direct song plays, folk plays and comedies, usually with singing and dancing. By the start of the 20th century more serious drama was being staged.
In 1906, the society became the basis for the professional theatre called "Estonia" founded by the directors and actors Paul Pinna and Theodor Altermann. This remained tied to the "Estonia" society and the Estonian Theatre "Estonia" Limited Liability Company, founded in 1908, until 1940, at which time they were disbanded under the Soviet rule in Estonia as part of "the bourgeois remnant" and the theatre was nationalized.
The opera company is also known as the Estonia Theatre after the building it occupies in downtown Tallinn. This was built as a national effort under the leadership of the "Estonia" society in 1913 and was opened to the public on 24 August of the same year.
The opera house itself was bombed by Soviet air raids on 9 March 1944. It was reopened after the war in 1947. Estonian painters Richard Sagrits, Elmar Kits and Evald Okas painted the ceiling in tempera in the style of Socialist Realism. [1]
Plays were staged in "Estonia" until 1949 when the drama troupe was disbanded, after which "Estonia" continued purely as a musical theatre. The company celebrated its centenary in 2006. The celebration was carried out in a newly renovated opera house.
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Malmö Opera is an opera house in Malmö, Sweden. An opera company of the same name presents seasons of opera in this house.
Georg Ots was an Estonian baritone who besides opera was known as a performer of popular songs. He sang at the Estonian National Opera from 1951 to his death in 1975. He gained wider recognition with his roles at the Bolshoi Theatre, particularly with his lead role in Eugene Onegin. He was also celebrated for his interpretation in a musical film Mister Iks, based on Imre Kálmán's operetta Die Zirkusprinzessin.
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The Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre began as a mixed choir of the Estonia Society Musical Department (EMD) on the eve of World War I. The assembly of the Estonia Society created the Tallinn Higher Music School on November 17, 1918. The opening ceremony took place on September 28, 1919. In 1923 the educational institution was renamed the Tallinn Conservatoire. In 1938 the State Drama School was opened. In 1993 the school was renamed the Estonian Academy of Music. In 1995 the Drama Faculty was renamed the Higher Theatre School.
Estonia Theatre is an historic landmark building in central Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. It houses the Estonian National Opera and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.
The culture of Estonia combines an indigenous heritage, represented by the country's Finnic national language Estonian, with Nordic and German cultural aspects. Over the centuries, the culture of modern Estonia has been significantly influenced by that of the Germanic-speaking world. Due to its history and geography, Estonia's culture has also been influenced by the traditions of the Baltic Germans and Scandinavians as well as the neighbouring Baltic, Slavic, and Finnic peoples.
The theatre of Estonia dates back to 1784, when August von Kotzebue founded an amateur theatre company in Tallinn. Most of the plays at the time were comedies for the amusement for local Baltic German nobility. In 1809 a professional theatre company was established, with its own building in Tallinn, the Tallinna saksa teater. The repertoire was mostly in German but plays in Estonian and Russian were also performed.
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Marie-Elisabeth "Betty" Kuuskemaa was an Estonian stage and film actress whose long career spanned over sixty years.
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Asta Vihandi was an Estonian opera and operetta soprano, stage and film actress, and dancer whose career began in 1947 at the age of eighteen. Vihandi's longest engagement was at the Estonian National Opera, which lasted from 1950 until 1985. Later in life, she worked as an administrator for the National Philharmonic of the Estonian SSR.
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A national school of opera in Ukraine first emerged during the last third of the 19th century, and was based on the traditions of European theatre and Ukrainian folk music. The first opera by a Ukrainian composer was Maxim Berezovsky's Demofont, based on an Italian libretto, which premiered in 1773. The oldest opera in the Ukrainian musical repertoire, A Zaporozhye Cossack on the Danube by Semen Hulak-Artemovsky, was written in 1863. The composer Mykola Lysenko, the founder of Ukrainian opera, composed a number of works, including Natalka Poltavka, Taras Bulba, Nocturne, and two operas for children, Koza-dereza and Mr Kotsky.
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