Unique initiative by Italian Embassy

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The Italian Ambassador in Tallinn Marco Clemente organized on the 28th of October 2015 an event in honour of the Minister of Education and Research Jürgen Ligi. The event included an exclusive premiere screening of the documentary that ETV filmed last year in Italy during the trip to Giuseppe Verdi’s lands by the winner of the «Verdissimo Junior» contest.  Some guests are expected to come to Tallinn for the occasion from Italy including Verdi’s great-great-grand-son Angiolo.

The «Verdissimo Junior» contest was launched in 2013 by Ambassador Clemente in co-operation with the Estonian National Opera and the Tallinn Academy of Music and Theatre. It enjoyed the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Research as well as the financial support by the Council of the Gambling Tax.

Two years ago, in September 2013 (the bicentennial of Verdi’s birth) more than 400 high school students from all over Estonia were invited to attend the general rehearsal of Verdi’s opera «Rigoletto» at the Estonian National Opera and asked, afterwards, to write an essay on their impressions on the show and, in general, their feelings towards Italian opera. The transportation of the students to the theatre from Tallinn and other locations in Estonia was organized by the Tallinn Academy of Music and Theatre.

The essays were scrutinized by a Commission composed by Estonian scholars, teachers and musicians. The best ones were awarded several prizes: books, CD’s, DVD’s on operas, opera tickets etc. The first prize was the trip to Italy mentioned before and was won by a young student from Hiiumaa. She spent several days in Parma (Verdi’s birthplace) and surroundings, where she met musicians and people linked to Verdi, and attended a Verdi’s opera at the Modena Opera House. A crew from ETV filmed the highlights of her trip. Travel and accommodation’s expenses for the winner of the contest as well as for the ETV crew were sponsored by the Emilia-Romagna Region (which Parma belongs to) and by an Italian businessman resident in Estonia.

It was an important educational project aimed at disseminating among the Estonian youth a better knowledge of opera, a musical genre which is likely destined to lose popularity in a few generations’ time if not appropriately introduced to the Estonian youngsters. Given this educational approach it is important that the Estonian public opinion, through Estonian media, is aware of this unique initiative, probably never attempted by a foreign Embassy before.

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