2025
The 2025 festival programme offered a rich combination of opera, concerts, masterclasses, exhibitions and events connected with the Klaudia Taev Competition.
The festival opened in Tallinn on 10 September with a concert by Maria Guleghina, Chairwoman of the 14th Klaudia Taev Competition jury, accompanied by pianist Ivari Ilja. The concert, part of the Musica Aeterna series, was organised in cooperation with the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.
From 11 to 13 September, Maria Guleghina led a three-day masterclass for young opera singers at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. Her masterclass provided young singers with the opportunity to work with one of the world’s leading dramatic sopranos and one of the most distinguished figures in the international opera world.
On 13 September, scenographer Madis Nurms opened his solo exhibition Character at Pärnu Keskuse Galerii. The exhibition presented striking costumes from PromFest’s international opera productions dating back to 2007, offering an opportunity to look back at almost two decades of the festival’s visual history.
The main opera production of the festival, Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, was performed at Endla Theatre on 14 and 16 September. The production, jointly created by PromFest and the Kaunas State Musical Theatre, starred Lithuanian soprano Gabrielė Bukinė, winner of the 2023 Klaudia Taev Competition, in the title role and was directed by Marta Aliide Jakovski.
The 14th Klaudia Taev Competition officially opened on the evening of 14 September with a ceremony at Endla Theatre. The jury members, singers and accompanying pianists were introduced, followed by the traditional random draw determining the order of performances.
The competition then progressed through its successive stages: the Second Round on 15 September, the Third Round on 16 September, and the Semi-Final on 17 September. The competition culminated on 19 September at Pärnu Concert Hall with a meeting with Maria Guleghina followed by the Final Concert, in which up to six finalists performed with an orchestra.
The educational programme was complemented by an open lecture, “How to Be a Successful Opera Singer,” on 18 September at the Pärnu House of Arts. The lecture for young opera singers was moderated by Dutch stage director and lecturer Hans Nieuwenhuis.
Together, the opera production, international competition, masterclass, concert, exhibition and educational events formed a diverse programme that brought together young singers, internationally recognised opera professionals and audiences in Tallinn and Pärnu.
2019
PromFest 2019
This year marked the 8th edition of the Pärnu International Opera Music Festival PromFest, which was first held in 2005.
Usually, PromFest presents one new opera production, specially created and produced to premiere during the festival. This year, however, the programme featured three different productions!
In addition, the festival offered an opportunity to bring back two previously produced operas that had subsequently entered the repertoires of Tartu Vanemuine Theatre and Kaunas State Musical Theatre: Aida, produced at Tartu Vanemuine Theatre in 2015, and The Tsar’s Bride, produced at Kaunas State Musical Theatre in 2013.
Both of these earlier productions were last presented at PromFest.
Exhibition “Coloraturas”
The Festival opened with an exhibition of costumes designed by PromFest’s scenographer, Madis Nurms. He has created the scenography for seven opera productions and also directed Aida for PromFest in 2015. The exhibition was held at the Port Artur shopping centre in the heart of Pärnu.
The 11th Klaudia Taev Competition
The Festival’s main event, the Klaudia Taev International Competition for Young Singers, was held for the 11th time from 20 to 26 May 2019.
There were 182 participants from 39 countries. The Competition’s First Round took place in 26 different cities across Europe: Amsterdam, Budapest, Bucharest, Berlin, Cluj-Napoca, Graz, Detmold, Helsinki, Kaunas, Kyiv, Lviv, Maribor, Mainz, Malmö, Milan, Minsk, Moscow, Oslo, Riga, St. Petersburg, Sofia, Stockholm, Tartu, Vienna, Yerevan and Zagreb.
The Chairwoman of the Jury was American mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick, a soloist at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She also gave a three-day masterclass.
Singers came from 39 countries: Armenia, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Czechia, Cuba, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, the USA and Estonia.
The First Prize was not awarded this year. However, the other prizes were shared between several singers: the Second Prize was awarded to Ukrainian soprano Anna Tverdova and Armenian bass Sargis-Bazhbeuk-Melikyan, while the Third Prize went to Lithuanian soprano Kamilė Bontė (Balobonaitė) and Finnish bass-baritone Samuli Taskinen.
The Best Pianist Award was presented to Ashot Drnajan-Babrovski from Belarus.
Opera production: “I Capuletti e i Montecchi” by Bellini
The production offered a modern, now widespread perspective on an old love story, once put to paper by William Shakespeare, blurring or even eliminating gender roles altogether. Why not? Love is, and always has been, love.
Toomas Kuter – Pärnu Postimees, 28 May 2019
PromFest’s ninth opera production featured Abigail Levis, a mezzo-soprano from the USA and the winner of the Klaudia Taev Competition 2017. She sang the role of Romeo, while Juliet was performed by Belarusian soprano Margarita Levtšuk, who was awarded the Audience Favourite Prize at the same competition in 2017.
The role of Tebaldo was also performed by a prize-winner of the Klaudia Taev Competition: Russian tenor Iurii Rostotsky, who received the Third Prize in 2015.
This was already the fourth co-production with the Kaunas State Musical Theatre, following Attila in 2011. The production was directed by Estonian film director and screenwriter Katrin Tegova, with Erki Pehk as musical director and conductor. The sets and costumes were designed by Madis Nurms.
Two performances were given at Endla Theatre on 19 and 21 May. The production remains in the repertoire of the Kaunas State Musical Theatre.
Performances of previous PromFest’s opera productions:
This festival was unique in that the audience had the opportunity to see three different PromFest productions during a single festival. It was the last chance to see the final performances of two earlier productions: Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride, which had been part of the repertoire of the Kaunas State Musical Theatre since 2013, and Verdi’s Aida, which had its final performance after around 20 performances at Tartu Vanemuine Theatre since its premiere in 2015.
PromFest welcomed back several prize-winners from previous Klaudia Taev Competitions: Elina Šimkus (photo left), a prize-winner in 2011, as Marfa; Jomantė Šležaitė (left in the photo on the right), the winner of the 2015 competition, as Aida; and Anželina Švatška (right in the photo on the right), a prize-winner in 2005, as Lyubasha and Amneris.
The Tsar’s Bride, directed by Teet Kask and conducted by Jonas Janulevičius, was performed on 20 May, while Aida, directed by Madis Nurms, who was also the scenographer of both productions, and conducted by Erki Pehk, was performed on 25 May. Both performances took place at Endla Theatre.
Meeting Dolora Zajick:
“There are a lot of singers who never reach their goal. It’s that simple. You really have to have great willpower; you have to be disciplined. It takes 10 years to learn to be a singer, just as long as it takes to become a good doctor, for example. You have to go through several difficult stages. It’s a very long process. Singing seems easy, but it definitely isn’t.”
Dolora Zajick – Ammende Villa, 26 May 2019
On 26 May, a public meeting with Dolora Zajick, Chairwoman of the Klaudia Taev Competition, was held at Villa Ammende.
The long-time soloist of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, who has been described as the “voice of the century,” shared memories of the beginning of her career as a singer and spoke about the challenges and difficulties she encountered along the way.
The event was hosted by Hans Nieuwenhuis, the longtime director of the Dutch Opera Studio and an opera director.
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