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 | Speeches | | |
The President of the Republic at the Kuressaare Opera Days on July 25, 200225.07.2002
Dear Music Lovers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
What is happening here today and the next two days we could call a little miracle. An opera festival staged in a county town far away from big centres is not an everyday event. For this, undoubtedly, our nearest neighbour Finland with its Savonlinna Opera Festival has given an excellent example. But in Estonia itself, the Kuressaare Opera Days having been carried out since 1999 are a trailblazer.
I said that it is a little miracle. But on the other hand, the protagonist of the festival - Saaremaa Muusikahariduse Sihtasutus (Saaremaa's Foundation for Musical Education) - has picked up the thread of local people's ardour for music going back far into history. The fact that the people of Saaremaa are musical is told to manifest itself in their language, which sounds to the rest of the Estonians like singing. As early as only a month after the first countrywide song festival in 1869 the people of Saaremaa carried out their own magnificent song festival at Kuressaare. It would be unthinkable to imagine Estonian music traditions without composers, musicians and teachers having come from Saaremaa.
Yet, apart from continuing a tradition, the Kuressaare Opera Days also attest to how an enthusiastic grassroots initiative can overcome any kind of different obstacles to realize their ideas and will. Let us hope that the promoters will be ready and dogged enough to extend their opera days in size. This year's festival - soloists from the Latvian National Opera and from Finland co-performing - is just the proof of this kind of readiness.
Dear Friends,
A really grand musical event only can be born if created jointly by composer, performer and audience. It means that all those concerned in the event must focus on the same wavelength. I wish all of you this very kind of shared commitment to music for both tonight and the following two evenings. Let us with our joint efforts help the Kuressaare Opera Days in becoming a yearly grand event for the whole of Estonia.
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