From August 8 to 17, Birgitta Festival 2008 will take place in the ruins of the convent of St. Bridget, Tallinn. The festival program offers ten performances. The main guests of the festival are The Moscow Novaya Opera and Imperial Russian Ballet. Singers Aile Asszonyi, Annely Peebo, Ain Anger, Mati Turi, conductors Lauri Sirp, Eri Klas, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra will perform among others Estonian top interprets and collectives.
The program of festival offers two ballet and four opera performances. On August 8, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s The Swan Lake (conductor Eri Klas) and August 9, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sherezade (conductor Jevgeni Samoilov) will be performed by the Imperial Russian Ballet and The Moscow Novaya Opera’s orchestra. On August 10, The Moscow Novaya Opera soloists and orchestra will perform Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana (conductor Eri Klas) and Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s I pagliacci (conductor Valeri Kritskov). On August 11, the same performers will present Gaetano Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda (conductor Sergei Lõsenko). The leading roles of these operas will be sung by the leading soloist of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre Jelena Zelenskaya. On August 15, Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera The Turn of the Screw will be sung by the Estonian soloists Oliver Kuusik, Liisi Kasenõmm, Aile Asszonyi, Heli Veskus, Heldur Harry Põlda and Hanna-Liisa Kappel (conductor Lauri Sirp).
The festival program also includes concerts of great vocal symphonic music by Giuseppe Verdi and Carl Orff. Verdi’s Requiem on August 14, and Orff’s Carmina Burana August 16, will be performed by the soloists, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, mixed choir Latvija and Fine 5 Dance Theatre under the conducting of Eri Klas.
On August 13, the festival offers musical show Cinema & Comedy: Rise and Fall of the Classical Musician with Gidon Kremer, Igudesman & Joo, and Kremerata Baltica. This show combines cinema, comedy, circus, cabaret and classical music. Dance performance Don! Juan will be performed by the Catarina Mora Flamenca on August 17. The program of festival also consists of special performance for children and convent’s day.
The artistic director of Birgitta Festival 2008 is Eri Klas
Precise program: http://www.birgitta.ee
Agnes Toomla