Pärnu Opera’s open-air music theatre festival SUMMER ARIA 2011 (10 July – 13 August 2011). SYNTHESIS OF THE ARTS takes place for the fifth time. There are 25 music theatre performances and theatralized concerts in five weeks period. All performances of festival are original, created for possibilities of Pärnu Old City Yard and its rear natural acoustics.

Founded on January 5, 1993, Pärnu Opera has offered quality music and intriguing theatre solutions for almost two decades.
In addition to the standard repertoire of opera history, Pärnu Opera presents mystery-like ecclesiastic compositions, contemporary opera, performances, multimedia performances, dramatized concerts and experimental musical theatre.
The nucleus of Pärnu Opera, international Repoo Ensemble, consisting of composers, musicians, writers, visual artists, actors and other creative personages, aims to realise the conception of original repoo-opera.
The artistic director of Pärnu Opera is composer and conductor Andrus Kallastu.


SUMMER ARIA 2011
SYNTHESIS OF THE ARTS
10 July – 13 August 2011
Pärnu Old City Yard (Pärnu Vanalinna Õu, Nikolai 26 / Pühavaimu 19)

SUMMER ARIA is an unique open-air music theatre festival of summer capital. Performances start an hour and a half before midnight in Pärnu Old City Yard. The atmosphere of the nights is spell-bounding. The mixture of well-known opera airs, surprising and innovative sounds from contemporary composers, sounds of nature and excellent acoustics with the illumination of the location makes the experience of mystical whole unforgettable.
SUMMER ARIA is special for everyone who seeks inspiring artistic enjoyment. Artistic Director Andrus Kallastu


Programme

Su 10.7.2011 at 22.30 CONSPIRACY SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE. Music by Strauss, Verdi, Wagner
Tu 12.7.2011 at 22.30 CONSPIRACY SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE. Music by Strauss, Verdi, Wagner
Thu 14.7.2011 at 22.30 CONSPIRACY SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE. Music by Strauss, Verdi, Wagner
Fr 15.7.2011 at 22.30 BACH IN PÄRNU. Andrus Kallastu recommends
Sa 16.7.2011 at 22.30 SUMMER ARIAS: Kai Kallastu (soprano), Andrus Kallastu (piano)

Su 17.7.2011 at 22.30 WOMAN?! Music theatre performance. Music by Kallastu, Lock, Uduman
Tu 19.7.2011 at 22.30 WOMAN?! Music theatre performance. Music by Kallastu, Lock, Uduman
Thu 21.7.2011 at 22.30 WOMAN?! Music theatre performance. Music by Kallastu, Lock, Uduman
Fr 22.7.2011 at 22.30 BACH IN PÄRNU. Andrus Kallastu recommends
Sa 23.7.2011 at 22.30 SUMMER ARIAS: Kai Kallastu (soprano), Andrus Kallastu (piano)

Su 24.7.2011 at 22.30 Concert-cinema A PAN AND A GIRL
Tu 26.7.2011 at 22.30 Concert-cinema A PAN AND A GIRL
Thu 28.7.2011 at 22.30 Concert-cinema A PAN AND A GIRL
Fr 29.7.2011 at 22.30 BACH IN PÄRNU. Andrus Kallastu recommends
Sa 30.7.2011 at 22.30 SUMMER ARIAS: Kai Kallastu (soprano), Andrus Kallastu (piano)

Su 31.7.2011 at 22.30 PRAYER SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE. Music by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi
Tu 2.8.2011 at 22.30 PRAYER SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE. Music by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi
Thu 4.8.2011 at 22.30 PRAYER SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE. Music by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi
Fr 5.8.2011 at 22.30 BACH IN PÄRNU. Andrus Kallastu recommends
Sa 6.8.2011 at 22.30 SUMMER ARIAS: Kai Kallastu (soprano), Andrus Kallastu (piano)

Su 7.8.2011 at 22.30 MAD SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS Vol.2. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE. Music by Bellini, Thomas
Tu 9.8.2011 at 22.30 MAD SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS Vol.2. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE. Music by Bellini, Thomas
Thu 11.8.2011 at 22.30 MAD SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS Vol.1. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE. Music by Bellini, Donizetti
Fr 12.8.2011 at 22.30 BACH IN PÄRNU. Andrus Kallastu recommends
Sa 13.8.2011 at 22.30 MAD SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS Vol.1. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE. Music by Bellini, Donizetti

NB! Alterations possible


Tickets 15 EUR (no card payment, cash only), sale half hour before the performance.
From advance sale tickets 10 EUR in internet http://www.piletimaailm.com and at the outlets of Piletimaailm all over Estonia.

SUMMER ARIA passes 30 EUR are personal and non-transferable, from advance sale in internet www.piletimaailm.com and at the outlets of Piletimaailm all over Estonia. SUMMER ARIA pass guarantees you entrance to all performances of SUMMER ARIA 2011.

Travel organizers, please contact us by e-mail ooper@parnu.ee, discounts for groups (minimum group size 10).

In Estonia the summer evenings may be cool and damp. We suggest to take along warm clothes and rain protections.

Information http://www.ooper.parnu.ee


In collaboration with Pärnu Old City Basic School (Pärnu Vanalinna Põhikool)
Supporters: Pärnu City, Estonian Culture Capital
Partners: Klassikaraadio, Turismiweb, EestiTursim.ee, ViroWeb, Tervise Paradiis Spa Hotel & Water Park,Strand SPA & Conference Hotel, Matkavekka


WOMAN?! Music theatre performance
„Woman?!“ is a performance that through two monodramas studies the function of a woman in a society ruled by men, specifically the more extreme manifestations of this function. The myth of Cassandra is a colourful example of a woman falling down the society ladder and losing her personality. The daughter of Trojan king Priamos is loved by Apollon, but becomes Agamemnon’s war trophy, an immigrant against her own will, who has to predict misery and disaster to deaf ears and is finally murdered. Jesus’s mother Maria, when suffering on Golgotha mountain, comes to realise that her son’s cruel death on the cross was inevitable and a source of paradisal happiness for herself. Kai Kallastu (soprano)


A PAN AND A GIRL. Concert-cinema
Can music be seen? Can art be heard? Closing your eyes, you can see colours mingling, sadness on somebody’s face, the beauty and pain of nature, dreamlike occasions... Looking at a painting of nature, you may hear a dreamy sound of a flute, a bow stroke or pizzicato – and they all flash in front of your eyes like raindrops... Concert-cinema A PAN AND A GIRL unites concert and film into one organic entirety. On the movie screen you see a fantasy film of a wandering Pan and of a girl who emerges like spring. Music interacts with the picture through works of Estonian, Finnish, Russian, French and Japanese composers that are performed, seasoned by playful improvisations, by Leonora Palu (flutes) and Indrek Palu (violin, electric violin, live-electronics). The film is scripted, directed and shot by Tõnis Liivamägi and designed by Gabriela Liivamägi.


CONSPIRACY SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE
Opera history knows a lot of conspiracy scenes, in the course of which heroes and heroines CONSPIRACY to eliminate a slaughterous ruler, murder a leading character or commit some other crime for the sake of their happiness.
Kai Kallastu (soprano) and Atlan Karp (baritone)


PRAYER SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE
When human resources for solving a difficult situation become exhausted, one is left with nothing else than god and a prayer. The strength of a prayer is strong and one can pray for anything: for a bloody war to end, for convalescence of beloved one or for god to grace a planned enterprise. When opera has a happy end, the prayer has worked. But principally the prayer in an opera is only an affirmation of a hopeless situation – gods may have mercy, but people won’t.
Kai Kallastu (soprano).


MAD SCENES FROM QUALITY OPERAS VOL I & II. Installation-opera series CATALOGUE
Scenes, in the course of which a leading character or some other singer loses his mind, where a natural part of opera since its birth, but in 19th century Italian and French opera scenes like that attained particular popularity. These scenes where written for top singers and their hidden purpose was to demonstrate the singer’s singing and acting capabilities to their full extent. Therefore the vocal scores of mad scenes, in comparison with other musical numbers, have much bigger and more exciting goals – big skips, complicated passages, extremely long phrases, quick changes in dynamics and abrupt variations of character are all quite customary. Performances I and II are connected through a story of a tragic fate of a woman – the feelings of innocent women caught in the cogwheels of money, power and lust.
Kai Kallastu (soprano)


BACH IN PÄRNU. Andrus Kallastu recommends
The music of Johann Sebastian Bach, played on an accompanying instrument of gladiatorial combat, the organ, graces balmy summer night in Pärnu.
Andrus Kallastu (digital organ)


SUMMER ARIAS. Arias from operas
The sweetness of a summer night is illuminated by arias from well-known operas, performed by Kai Kallastu (soprano) and Andrus Kallastu (digital piano)