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EESTI ELU reedel, 3. aprillil 2020 — Friday, April 3, 2020
ESTONIAN CULTURE LINKS by Vincent Teetsov
“Time Machine: Georg Ots and the growth of post-war opera in Estonia and Canada” Georg Ots was born 100 years ago, on the 21st of March 1920. In his life, he projected his powerful baritone voice into the cultural space of millions of listeners across Europe and beyond. The apex of his career coincided in terestingly with the growth of institutionally-supported opera in Canada. Georg Ots was primarily an opera singer, with a career stretching from 1944 to his death in 1975. Over 31 years, he captured the spirit of a wide range of operas and musical numbers, representing the cul ture of many nations. Georg was a polyglot, who spoke Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, and Russian. He sung in all of those lan guages, and more. He put his heart into the singing of Estonian folk songs. One notable example is his famous rendition of Raimond Valgre’s “Saaremaa Valss” (“Saaremaa Waltz”, lyrics writ
ten by Debora Vaarandi). He cast up the spirit of Estonian island life in summer, and of country folk, in a way that dis tilled that moment in time. Long summer nights, bonfires, dancing, and partying. Timeless human experiences if you think about it. At the same time as Ots’ rise to fame, the popularity of opera surged here in Canada. In 1946, the Royal Conservatory’s Opera School was founded, to train the post-war generation of Canadian opera talent. In 1950, the Royal Conservatory Opera Company was created (later renamed as the Canadian Opera Company). These institutions provided education and profes sional opportunities to perfor mers in a way that was foun dational to the continuation of opera as an art form. This talent was supported by public broadcasting and taping of performances by the CBC Opera Company. Broadcasting expanded audiences across
Canada’s provinces and promo ted each provincial opera com pany in between production seasons. Canadian audiences would be increasingly supple mented by European im migrants who were eager to continue attending the opera as they had before emigrating. After the end of the Second World War, increased stability and prosperity provided a fertile ground for the growth of opera in Canada. But the performan ces themselves were a way for Canadians to mentally and emo tionally process the events of the war. Likewise, Georg Ots’ singing and acting provided entertaining narratives and relief to people across Europe, and even further afield such as when he per formed in Egypt. With Georg Ots’ music, opera seems to have offered fantasy and drama in a time of
Government of the Republic of Estonia
The Science Council made recommendations to the Government Emergency Committee to contain COVID-19 Tallinn, Stenbock House, March 24, 2020 – The COVID-19 Science Council finds that human behaviour is the most critical factor in pre venting the spread of the virus. The team of virologists and physicians consider the restrictions imposed in Esto nia to be timely and adequate. Professor Irja Lutsar of the Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine at the University of Tartu told the Emergency Committee about the assessment by the Science Council. “Since the introduction of the restrictions, the epidemic has been relatively stable, with out exponential growth,” she said. “This shows that restric tions in Estonia slowed down the spread of the virus, but we need to be aware that prevent ing the spread of COVID-19 is a long process that requires patience from everyone. It is inevitable that social isolation measures need to be strength ened to prevent the spread of the virus.” Consequently, the Science Council recommends that in order to prevent further spread of the virus, it is necessary to strengthen the isolation rules and the functioning of the home regime and to reduce unneces
sary presence of people in pub lic spaces and outside the home. “Given the intensive care resource in Estonia, it is very important to prevent a sudden overload of the health care sys tem,” said Irja Lutsar. “This is despite the fact that Estonian hospitals and family doctors have made thorough prepara tions for dealing with COVID patients.” “In this health crisis, every person’s own contribution to preventing the spread of the virus is crucial,” said Irja Lutsar. “Anyone who has come in contact with or suspects that he or she has been exposed to the virus must definitely avoid contact to anyone outside the home. Strict isolation rules must be followed and the per son has to stay indoors for 14 days. The sick person must stay at home until healing is as sessed by the family doctor. Only this way will we be able to contain the spread of the virus.” In their recommendations to the government committee, the researchers stressed the need to systematically inform at-risk groups, especially the elderly. There is a need to improve the monitoring of people in home care and isolation and to dis
tance people in public space. However, it should not be for gotten that younger people and children are also infected with coronavirus. The researchers also provid ed an overview of what Estonia can do to support the develop ment of the vaccine. The Emergency Committee also re ceived an overview of treatment options available in other countries. In addition to Professor Irja Lutsar, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Health Development Kristi Rüütel, Chief Medical Officer of the North Estonian Regional Hos pital and Professor of Surgical Diseases at the University of Tartu Peep Talving, doctor of Infectious Diseases at the Uni versity of Tartu Pilleriin Soodor and Professor of Research of practical virology at the Uni versity of Tartu Andres Merits are members of the Science Council. The strategy bureau of the Government Office organizes the work of the Science Coun cil. Additional Information: Government communication unit press@riik.ee valitsus.ee
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rebuilding. Opera communi cated heavy human experiences and emotions that audiences were trying to process them selves. Arguably Georg Ots’ most famous operatic role was the character of the Demon in Anton Rubinstein’s Demon. In this role, Ots played a tortured soul who must balance his desire to destroy divinely-created beauty and his infatuation with Tamara, the daughter of a Georgian prince. Ots’ impas sioned arias teetered on the edge between longing and tor ment. He would find even greater fame through his lead role in the 1958 Russian film Mister X. Georg was Estonia’s representa tive in what was allowed to be explored culturally in his situa tion. That is, songs and theatre productions were filtered and censored. While generally limit ed to the circulation and ap proved touring destinations in side the Soviet Union, Georg Ots toured extensively and pro moted his voice and body of work as much as he could. Financial backing and orga nizations dedicated to opera grew at a similar time and in a similar manner between Canada and Estonia. In 1865, a song and dramatic society called “Estonia” was created, which after the turn of the 20th cen tury developed more and more
theatre productions. In 1913, these productions found a dedi cated home with the construc tion of the Estonia Theatre in Tallinn. 31 years after this, in 1944, Ots made his solo opera debut.
Government of the Republic of Estonia
chatbot service circulated even before the crisis, but the hacka thon enabled us to quickly put the idea into action, and hope fully, it will reduce the burden on hotlines,” said Michaela Snopková, one of the creators of Suve. As a consultant to foreign specialists, she has no ticed that people often have questions that do not require personal consultation, but rather they need to be directed to the right information. “There is no need to call the family doctor hotline to ask if it is possible to travel to Finland or to get infor mation about the certificate for incapacity to work. Suve will find answers to these questions. This will ensure that those who have symptoms of the corona virus or some other illness and need prompt and personal coun selling could quickly reach a doctor,” said Snopková. Suve the chatbot has already been added to many websites. Through active use, the chatbot can learn and answer questions more accurately. Thanks to the work contributed by volunteers, the chatbot can soon speak in Russian as well. In addition, Suve collects and transmits unanswered user questions to editors, which helps to develop the chatbot. All volunteers are welcome to contribute to the development of the chatbot. If you are a data entry clerk, translator, or editor and wish to contribute, please visit https://eebot.ee/en/. The website also provides additional information for institutions and companies that wish to embed
A chatbot will help you find answers to your questions about the crisis Tallinn, Stenbock House, 23 March 2020 – The websites of several government agencies now have Suve, an automated chatbot which provides answers to frequently asked questions about the emergen cy situation and the corona virus. The chatbot provides answers to questions in Esto nian and English and uses information from the official sources of government agen cies. According to Marten Kae vats, Adviser of the Strategy Unit of the Government Office, correct and up-to-date informa tion is of critical importance in the current emergency situation. “The chatbot offers a new way to get information on changes that affect us all in terms of life-planning and also helps to relieve the burden on different hotlines. Suve the chatbot can still be compared to a young puppy who is yet to learn all the tricks, but dozens of volun teers are working to improve it,” said Kaevats. The idea to create Suve came about thanks to Hack the Crisis, a hackathon organised by the Estonian startup community, Garage 48, and Accelerate Esto nia. “The idea of a nationwide
Perhaps the peak of Cana dian opera after the Second World War was the 1967 Montreal World Exposition, where five international opera companies (the Hamburg State Opera, Milan’s La Scala, Moscow’s Bolshoi Opera, the Royal Swedish Opera, and the Vienna State Opera) all made their North American debut. Here, to international au diences, the Canadian Opera Company (COC) presented Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann and Harry Somers’ Louis Riel, the latter of which was written for the Canadian centennial and has become one of Canada’s most famous operas. While Esto nian opera performers delved largely into the creations of the past, Canadian operas had started to introduce more recent Canadian history and characters. 100 years after Georg Ot’s birth, we still look to the arts – including music, poetry, and opera – for a voice that speaks to our experiences, even across cultural boundaries.
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