SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Other Links

Editorial Board

Google Site Search

Arvo Volmer:  Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Estonian National Opera, interviewed by Göran Forsling (GF)

Arvo Volmer - Picture courtesy of Estonian National Opera
 

In connection with the première of Un ballo in maschera in Tallinn (see review) I was lucky to get the opportunity to have a conversation with Arvo Volmer in his office at the Rahvusooper, which is its Estonian name. Since 2004 he has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director but his contact with the house extends even almost twenty years back, after his conducting debut there in 1985.

From 1987, Arvo Volmer was engaged by the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and from 1993 to 2001 he was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director. He held the same position from 1994 to 2005 at the Oulu Symphony Orchestra in Finland In 1989 his international career was launched, following his success at the Nikolai-Malko-Competition and he has guest conducted all over Europe as well as in Israel and with all the important orchestras in Australia. He is considered one of the world’s leading Sibelius interpreters but is equally at home in Russian music and is also a champion of contemporary music. Parallel with his post in Tallinn he has been Artistic Director of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in Australia since 2004, an orchestra whose excellence was clearly demonstrated in the widely praised complete recording of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen a couple of years ago. He is a dynamic conductor, which I have had reason to point out on several occasions, and he has clear views on what he wants to achieve with the Estonian National Opera.

‘Of course we have serious financial problems to grapple with’, he says, ‘like everyone else at the moment. But the National Opera has a special position, not only here in Tallinn but in all of Estonia. It is the biggest cultural institution in the country and people identify with the house. For me, for us, it’s important to keep it a national matter, based on Estonian singers and musicians. We have always been an ensemble theatre, where everyone works towards the same goal.’

GF How large is the ensemble?

Arvo picks up a sheet of paper and does a quick calculation. ‘At the moment there are twenty-four contracted soloists. Add to this a chorus of around fifty – there are a few vacancies – and the orchestra has eighty-seven members. But we are not fully self-supporting as matters stand. For the present repertoire we have to bring in certain voices. We don’t have a Gilda, we don’t have a Violetta and we don’t have a Tristan in the house. But it is never a matter of hiring stars for the sake of stardom. Big names don’t necessarily imply better opera and we never employ guests for minor roles.’

GF You do have a wide range of performances.

‘Apart from opera we play operetta and musical and we also have a ballet. Besides performances in the theatre hall there is a smaller stage for children’s performances, sometimes with pre-recorded music. At times we amassed as much as nineteen performances in a week.’

GF For February I counted 18 performances in the theatre hall: 4 operas, 3 ballets, I operetta and one musical.

‘Yes, it’s a mixed repertoire. I would like to reduce the lighter repertoire. Not all the singers are suited for this lighter fare. But operetta is part of the tradition and shouldn’t be looked down upon. There is a clear difference between tradition and routine.’

‘Tradition is also important for the way we perform opera. In Italian opera there are many traditions and I always go back to what the great conductors of an earlier generation did. When I start working on a new opera I play through the score but then I listen to recordings – not modern ones but the great ones from the 1950s: De Sabata, Erede, Molinari-Pradelli, Serafin. They are so much closer in time to the original concepts, some of them knew composers like Puccini.’

GF You also play contemporary operas.

‘I feel we have a responsibility to perform works by present day composers. But it isn’t easy for a new composer to become really good. You can’t expect the first essay to be a masterpiece. One has to learn the trade through composing and composing –and today the chances of getting new operas played are rather small after all.’

GF And the audiences shun modern works?

‘Well, no! Not always. Erkki Sven -Tüür's Wallenberg has been a tremendous success that no one could have dreamed about. This antifascist opera is now on its third season. It really catches the listeners. Even if you don’t like the music the story is gripping – a history lesson about something that now is so far back in time that only the oldest generation still remembers it. You may not learn from history – we have seen that many times – but it is an eye-opener.’

GF It should be played in Stockholm. [GF is  from Sweden Ed.]

‘I would love to make a guest appearance in Stockholm with Wallenberg. Our company haven’t been there since the mid-1980s. But it should also be seen in Berlin – and Moscow. It wasn’t actually a commission from our house in the first place. It was first produced in Dortmund in 2001. Now there is also a DVD recorded here in 2007.´

GF But in general contemporary music is a kind of stumbling-block for the general public.

‘But things have changed. There is much more freedom today. As a composer you have so many options. It’s even fully acceptable to write a simple C Major chord. Forty years ago that would have been unthinkable. This doesn’t mean that we will see operas written in 19^th century style but there is freedom. On the other hand a lot of new music tends to be played once and then forgotten. But this is not unique for our own time.’

Arvo ponders a while upon all the music that has been written through the ages and now rests unplayed, collecting dust.  ‘Just a fraction of it is being played,’ he says. ‘And also well known composers’ works are largely unplayed. Take Tchaikovsky. The printed edition of his complete oeuvre would fill … something like 4½ metres. How much is played?’ He indicates about twelve inches between his hands: ‘Just a fraction!’

GF In October last year you premièred a new opera by Mari Vihmand, The Formula of Love (review). Are there any plans for further commissions?

‘In the near future we are mounting a competition for a libretto for a new Estonian opera, scheduled for première in 2013, to coincide with the centenary of the opera house. The greatest problem with modern opera is to find good librettos. They tend to be so philosophical and ambiguous – too many words. Many of them are better suited for spoken theatre.’

GF And ballet?

‘There is a new ballet in the pipeline.’

GF What else is coming up in the near future?

‘Così fan tutte will be premiered in October, there will be a new L’Elisir d’amore and the most scintillating of operettas, Die Fledermaus. We also hope for a Bohème, possibly as a co-production with another opera house. Last year’s great challenge was Tristan und Isolde (review) and since that went well my appetite has been wetted and I would like to do Der Rosenkavalier, an even greater challenge, technically difficult. But we have several singers in our own ensemble that are just cut out for leading roles, an Octavian for example. At the moment I have no Ochs, though.

GF No more Wagner? No Ring?

No, we haven’t got the resources for the Ring. We are in sore need of a new opera house. This house was originally built for spoken theatre and it is worn. Again it is a question of money and for a Ring we need expensive guest singers. I am contemplating Parsifal, though, in a kind of semi-staged performance. Not in this house but there is a new all-culture house being built just opposite the opera house. It will, according to the plans, be inaugurated this autumn and it will seat 1700 visitors, there is a stage and an orchestral pit but no stage machinery. But with suitable lighting Parsifal is possible to perform. There is very little action anyway.’

The score for Parsifal is already lying on his desk so the prospect of a performance in due time seems favourable.  The dark clouds of the current depression are looming above the Estonian National Opera, as well as many other cultural institutions worldwide, but with Arvo Volmer at the helm there is no lack of visions and belief in the future.

Göran Forsling


^{Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page}