Urve Tauts

November 2, 1935, Pärnu
Member of the Estonian Theatre Union since 1963

Urve Tauts is one of the most outstanding mezzo-sopranos in Estonia of all time. She is characterized by great musicality, a beautiful timbre and nuanced voice, excellent acting skills and stage charisma. She received her secondary education at the Pärnu 1st Secondary School and studied singing with Klaudia Taev in Pärnu. She continued her singing studies at Tallinn Music School and the Tallinn State Conservatory, graduating in the class of Alice Roolaid (1954–1963).

Already during her singing studies, Urve Tauts started working in opera chorus of the State Opera Estonia (Estonian National Opera, 1955–1960). Her first role as a choral artist was Antonia’s Mother in Jaques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann. Since 1960, she became the soloist of the State Opera Estonia, singing there till 2001.

During her long operatic career (over 40 years), Urve Tauts has performed over 70 stage characters. Among her memorable and famous operatic roles can be mentioned Carmen (Georges Bizet’s Carmen), Azucena (Giuseppe Verdi’s Il trovatore), Amneris (Verdi’s Aida), Eboli (Verdi’s Don Carlos), Maddalena (Verdi’s Rigoletto), Ulrica (Verdi’s Un Ballo in maschera), Flora (Verdi’s La Traviata), Octavian (Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier), Olga (Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin), Marfa (Modest Mussorgsky’s Hovanschina) and Herodias (Strauss’s Salome). Due to her brilliant voice with a wide range she was also enabled to sing the roles of dramatic sopranos such as Santuzza Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana.

Among the stage music by Estonian composers, she has sung Eino Tamberg’s operas Iron Home and Cyrano de Bergerac, Eduard Tubin’s operas Barbara von Tisenhusen and The Parson of Reigi, Leo Normet’s comic opera Pear Tree, Alo Põldmäe’s chamber opera Town Hall Opera, Olav Ehala’s musical The Imp and Veljo Tormise’s ballet-cantata Estonian Ballades. Besides her home theatre, Estonian National Opera, she has also performed as a guest soloist in Theatre Vanemuine in Tartu, Theatre Enda in Pärnu and Tampere Opera in Finland (Verdi’s Il trovatore).

During her singing years, Urve Tauts was also a highly sought-after soloist in large-scale vocal works from the Baroque era to contemporary music. She has performed Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John’s Passion, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem and Missa solemnis, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Mass in C major and Symphony No. 9, Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, Johannes Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, Edward Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Igor Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex, Gustav Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 2, 4 and 8 and Das Lied von der Erde, Carl Orff’s Catulli Carmina, Georgi Sviridov’s Oratorio Pathetique and by Estonian composers Rudolf Tobias’s oratorio St. John of Damascus and Des Jona Sendung (premiere of the entire work under the baton of Peeter Lilje, 1989), Artur Kapp’s oratorio Job, Eduard Tubin’s Requiem and Ester Mägi’s cantata Kalevipoeg's Journey to Finland.

Urve Tauts’s ensemble partners have been pianists Vaike Vahi, Helju Tauk, Peep Lassmann, Vardo Rumessen, Tarmo Eespere, Taissia Filippova, organists Hugo Lepnurm, Ines Maidre and many others. Concert tours have taken her to Italy, France, Germany, USA, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Czechoslovak, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Yugoslavia, Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan, Benelux Countries and former Republics of the Soviet Union. Her voice has been recorded on several solo and compilation vinyl records and Estonian Television has recorded opera and concert performances. In 2014, double CD Urve Tauts was released presenting vocal chamber music as well as opera arias.

In addition to an active singing career, Urve Tauts also trained young singers. She has taught singing at the Georg Ots Tallinn Music School (1974–1978) and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (1978–2002).

Urve Tauts was awarded the Honoured Worker in Arts of Estonian SSR (1968), the People's Artist of Estonian SSR (1974), the Annual Theatre Award (1969) and the Georg Ots Prize (1980).

Urve Tauts’s operatic roles:
Voice of Antonia’s Mother (Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, 1957 and 1988)
Cherubino (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, 1958)
Lyubasha (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar's Bride, 1959)
Katharina (Vissarion Shebalin’s The Taming of the Shrew, 1960)
Ulrica (Giuseppe Verdi’s Un Ballo in maschera, 1961 and 1985)
Emilia (Giuseppe Verdi’s Othello, 1963)
Carmen (Georges Bizet’s Carmen, 1963 and 1982)
Suzuki (Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, 1963 and 1991)
3rd Lady (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, 1964 and 1991)
Amneris (Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, 1964)
Iige (Eino Tamberg’s Iron Home, 1965)
Olga (Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, 1966)
Filipyevana (Pyotr Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, 1986 and 2000)
Azucena (Giuseppe Verdi’s Il trovatore, 1967 and 1993)
Maddalena (Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto, 1968)
Laura (Amilcare Ponchielli’s Gioconda, 1969)
Anna von Tödwen (Eduard Tubin’s Barbara von Tisenhusen, 1969 and 1990)
Céline (Dmitry Kabalebsky’s Colas Breugnon, 1970)
Octavian (Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, 1970)
Eboli (Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlos, 1971)
Frugola, The Princess, Zita (Giacomo Puccini’s Il trittico: Il tabarro, 1972; Sour Angelica 1972; Gianni Schicchi, 1972 and 1997)
Judith (Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard's Castle, concert performance, 1972)
Felicia (Leo Normet’s Pear Tree, 1973)
Herodias (Richard Strauss’s Salome, 1973)
Flora (Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, 1974)
Roxane’s duenna (Eino Tamberg’s Cyrano de Bergerac, 1976)
Santuzza (Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, 1978)
Female voice (Francis Poulenc’s La voix humaine, 1978)
The Marquise of Berkenfield (Gaetano Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment, 1979)
Nurse (Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, 1980, 1985 and 2001)
The Innkeeper (Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, 1980 and 1985)
Federica (Giuseppe Verdi’s Luisa Miller, 1981)
Háta (Bedřich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, 1983)
Duneya (Sergei Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, 1982)
Mary (Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, 1984)
Mrs. Lippe (Alo Põldmäe’s Town Hall Opera, 1986)
Marfa (Modest Mussorgsky’s Hovanshchina, 1987)
Kristi (Eduard Tubin’s The Parson of Reigi, 1988)
Marta (Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele, 1988)
Woman (Aulis Sallinen’s The Horseman, 1991)
Mrs. Herring (Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring, 1993)
Czipra (Johann Strauss’s Der Zigeunerbaron, 1993)
Berta (Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, 1994)
Anhilte (Imre Kálmán’s Silva, 1995)
Nan (Olav Ehala’s The Imp, 1999)
Countess Ceprano (Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto, 2003)

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