Cyrano de Bergerac in Estonia Theatre in Tallinn, the 10th of February, 2018

At last I managed to go and see Eino Tamberg’s opera ”Cyrano de Bergerac” in the Estonia Theatre. Tamberg composed the opera to the libretto of Jaan Kross already in 1974. The opera has been staged in Estonia several times. The version that is running now is from year 2005 and parts of stage setting and costumes are from the 1995 version. Tamberg’s Cyrano is one of the best known Estonian operas.  

In the audience it was easy to see that the opera has been in the programme for quite a while. The performance was far from sold out and at least near me most of the audience was from Finland. It felt as if I had been home in Helsinki! But the audience present was happy with what they saw and heard and the performance got warm applause.

The story of Cyrano de Bergerac is well-known to many of us. There are several films made of it and also a few operas. In short the story is about Cyrano, who is a great poet and swordsman. He is secretly in love with his cousin Roxane, but does not think his love can be returned since his is so ugly. Roxane fancies young Christian’s good looks and thinks that she loves also his character, when Cyrano writes her letters on behalf of Christian. When Christian dies in the battle, Roxane enters a monastery, where Cyrano regularly visits her. In the end Roxane finds out who is the true writer of the letters and whom she thus actually loves – just when Cyrano dies by the wounds received in an ambush.

The stage setting of the opera is very sparse, but enough for the story. Costumes were a bit candy-like epoque, but all in all they both suited the opera. And the balcony scene, where Roxane sung out of a loge, was very sweet. This opera can truly be called good entertainment. Music was cheery, performance eventful and emotional. The scene in the end, where nuns were singing latin prayers was very impressive.

The group of singers was also well chosen. I liked both Cyrano himself (Rauno Eip) and Roxane (Kadri Kipper), but perhaps my favorite was count de Guiche (Jassi Zahharov). Mehis Tiits in the role of Christianin was also a positive surprise. He may not have sung totally mistake free, but the overall performance was positive.  

I can recommend the opera for anyone who is looking for an entertaining performance. Even though the end is not exactly happy, as a whole the opera is more light than dark.