"Helikon-opera" ended its tour to Estonia

21.07.2012

Performances of "Helikon-Opera" in Estonia

"Helikon-Opera" tour in Estonia at the festival "Days of Saaremaa Opera" ended with the great success

On the July 21 "Helikon-Opera" theatre has returned to Moscow from the largest festival of the Baltic Sea Region "Days of Saaremaa Opera," which is annually held in mid-summer in Estonia.

On the July 15 a big charter "Boeing" of “UTair” airlines, which this year became the official carrier of the festival, flew from  Vnukovo airport to the airport of Kuressaare on the Estonian island of Saaremaa. On board there were 150 artists of the theatre, and a week earlier four trucks with decorations of the performances of 450 m3, weighing 22 tons, went from Moscow to Estonia. Previously,  "UTair" airlines more than once became the carrier of the troupe during its active touring life.

Charter  flight was the beginning of a large collaboration between "Helikon-Opera" and “UTair” airlines in the context of the development of tourism and cultural ties between Russia and other  countries. Artistic Director of "Helikon-Opera" People's Artist of Russia Dmitry Bertman for many years already has been an official ambassador of culture of “Utair” airlines throughout the world.

The flight was a historic event, it was the first time in the history of Kuressaare airport when Boeing landed here. During the flight at an altitude of 10,000 meters artists of the theatre sang arias in the aircraft. On the ground after landing locals met Boeing with opera performers with applause, and next to the runway the local brass band welcomed the troupe, playing theatre’s repertoire.

The island of Saaremaa is the biggest Estonian island with an area of ​​more than two and a half thousand square kilometers. Before the thirteenth century, the island remained independent, and even had a navy, which consisted of 16 ships and 500 soldiers, whose forces raided the neighboring Danish land. Then the island was captured by the Crusaders, and it was passed to the Danes, then to the Swedes until 1710 during the Northern War, when it was included in the Russian state. In the 1930ies, independent Estonia has provided the island territory to the Soviet Union for placing a military base.

Now the main event of the local cultural life takes place in July in the island's main town of Kuressaare, it is the international music festival "Days of Opera on Saaremaa" The festival has been taking place since 1999. In the courtyard of the castle theater space for 200 seats is being built. The director of the festival is Arne Mikk. Opera ensembles from all over the world became guests of Kuressaare Castle: soloists and conductors, José Cura, Neeme Järvi, Eri Klas, Anna Aglatova, Hibla Gerzmava, Matti Salminen, Jaakko Ryuhanen, Nadia Krastev, Tatyana Anisimova, and many others. The number of spectators attending the "Days of Saaremaa Opera" last year reached twelve thousand.

This year the theater "Helikon-Opera" has become a major participant of the festival. On the July 17 "Boris Godunov" performance by M. Moussorgsky in D. Shostakovich edition was shown, then "The Barber of Seville" on the July 18 and performance of "Rasputin" on the July 20. Also on the 18th and the 19th of July the daily performances of "Kaffeekantate" had been held.

On the July 19th, a big gala concert "Karita Mattilla and the young stars of" Helikon-Opera" had been held in the context of the festival. The star of the opera world, soprano from Finland, Karita Mattilla performed in a concert with soloists of the theater Dmitry Ivanchey, Alexey Tikhomirov, Larisa Kostyuk, Karina A. Flores, Stanislav Shvets, Dmitry Ponomarev, Peter Morozov, Andrey Palamarchuk, artists, chorus and orchestra of the theater. The concert program included the world's operatic hits. This evening the conductor was maestro Markus Lehtinen from Finland. This concert was a continuation of series of concerts with the stars of the opera world, such as Angela Gheorghiu, Maria Guleghina, Roberto Alagna, Montserrat Caballe, Jose Cura, Norma Fantini and others. After the final number of the program - Grand finale of Verdi's "Aida", the applause did not cease for more than 20 minutes.

It should be noted that all 2,000 seats of the festival audience at each performance were completely filled, the audience comes here from all over the world, there had been a lot of visitors from Italy, France, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Baltic countries.

"Helikon-Opera" artists at the festival were: People's Artist of Russia Natalia Zagorinskaya, Honored Artist of Russia Larisa Kostiuk, Honored Artist of Russia Anna Grechishkina, Honored Artist of Russia Marina Karpechenko, Karina A. Flores, Alexandra Kovalevich, Honored Artist of Russia Vadim Zaplechny, Honored Artist of Russia Sergey Toptygin, Alexei Tikhomirov, Stanislav Shvets, Mikhail Seryshev, Dmitry Ponomarev, Peter Morozov, Andrey Palamarchuk, Dmitry Ovchinnikov, Alexander Miminoshvili, Vasily Efimov, Nikolai Galin, Vladimir Bolotin, artists, chorus and orchestra of the theater. Conductor was Konstantin Chudovsky.

The audience warmly accepted Helikon’s performances, there were standing ovations after each number almost. In addition to the performances artists swam in the Baltic Sea, visited SPA procedures, walked around the beautiful places of a wonderful island of Saaremaa, and even caught fish in a local river.

After the end of touring the theater troupe will be on vacation. Solemn meeting to mark the opening of 23 theater season will be held on August 27, 2012 in "Helikon" in Arbat at 15.00.

The entire troupe of "Helikon-Opera" under the leadership of Dmitry Bertman expresses gratitude to the artistic director of the Saaremaa festival Arne Mikk, director of Eesti Kontsert Uri Leuthen, executive director of the festival Marika Pyark, Director General of “UTair” airlines Andrew Martirosov, commander of the charter Boeing Yuri Bushnev, a senior flight attendant Elsa Vilkova, flight attendants T. Voskresenskaya, D. Kireev, S. Turaev and R. Aitbayeva for their warm hospitality and excellent organization of "Helikon-Opera" tour at the festival "Days of opera on Saaremaa".

 Here is a photo report of the tour: