Summer Opera and Star Shine in Viljandi

Text Timo Raussi
Photo Visit Estonia / Diana Unt


The Saaremaa Opera Festival likely needs no introduction, and many may have heard of the Narva Opera Days as well, but would you have guessed that the folk-music town of Viljandi has hosted a summer opera event for more than six years now?

The tradition began in 2020 with a single concert held in the courtyard of the Ugala Theatre. Since then, Suveooper has been held every summer, and has grown into a two-day cultural event, bringing opera, operetta, and other gems of richly resonant classical music to the city.

At the beginning of July, Viljandi Suveooper 7.0 will shift its spotlight from traditional opera to music from across the ocean, as 4 July marks the 250th anniversary of the United States declaring its independence.

On Thursday, 2 July, the star of the concert evening “Tähtede lend”, or “Flight of the Stars”, is Estonian cellist Jüri Täht, who began his music studies in Viljandi in the 1930s, and fled the turmoil of World War II to Germany and later to America, where he played in orchestras that performed on Broadway. His fascinating life path led him onto concert stages alongside Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, Don Shirley, and many others.

Täht became best known as a member of jazz pianist Don Shirley’s trio. The trio toured the United States in the 1960s, and their story loosely inspired the Oscar-winning film “Green Book”. However, the film altered Jüri’s character without permission, portraying him instead as a Russian musician named Oleg. Täht, who passed away about three years ago and now “flies on celestial stages,” was understandably displeased with the director and the studio.

On Friday, 3 July, the “Ooper Hollywoodis”, or “Opera in Hollywood” concert brings to the audience arias and other works of film music made famous in the late 1940s and 1950s by American tenor and movie star Mario Lanza. These will be performed by the summer opera’s first foreign guest ensemble, the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, whose chief conductor Constantine Orbelian also serves as the artistic director of the New York City Opera.

The soloists stepping before the orchestra are Charles Castronovo, the American star tenor of the New York Metropolitan Opera, and Annely Peebo, the Estonian mezzo-soprano who launched her international career from the Viljandi Music School and went on to perform on major opera stages including Vienna.

Tickets for the Viljandi Suveooper 7.0 concert evenings are still available here and here, although presales have already been very brisk.

To learn more about this and similar topics
Annely Peebo events Hollywood Jüri Täht Opera Viljandi