Saaremaa hosts Italian opera stars
Saaremaa Opera Days, which started in Kuressaare on Monday, features Teatro di Milano as the headliner.
The opera festival was started in 1999 and as with many long-running events and festivals in Estonia, has grown more respectable by each year.
Majority of the performances take place in a big opera tent holding about 2,000 spectators, set up in the yard of the 13th century Kuressaare Episcopal Castle in the capital of Saaremaa, Estonia's largest island.
Troupes, directors and soloists from the Moscow Helikon-Opera Theater, the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, the Latvian National Opera and the Lithuanian Opera and Ballet Theater, as well as from great opera houses in Vienna, Moscow, the Nordic Countries, Germany and Brazil have performed at the festival.
The Italian opera theater Theatro di Milano is the main guest this year, but the week-long program includes a total of 16 performances.
“We are very happy to bring a piece of beautiful Italian music to the island of Saaremaa,” the conductor of Teatro di Milano, Gianmario Cavellaro, told ERR, adding that he’s very happy with the colder weather for a change.
Teatro di Milano will perform Verdi’s “Rigoletto”, Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly” and Rossini’s "The Barber of Seville."
Editor: S. Tambur, M. Oll