Kai Rüütel

In the 2017/18 season Rüütel can be heard as Zweite Dame Die Zauberflöte at Theater an der Wien as well as Meg Page Falstaff and Blanche The Gambler at Opera Vlaanderen. On the concert platform Rüütel performs Das Lied von der Erde with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.

Last season Rüütel made her US operatic debut with Dallas Opera, singing Olga Eugene Onegin. She also returned to Teatro Real to sing Mary Der fliegende Holländer; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Emilia in a new production of Otello; and Opera Vlaanderen for the world premiere of Infinite Now by American-Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin, staged by Australian actor and theatre director Luk Perceval. On the concert platform Rüütel appeared at the Mumbai National Center of Performing Arts in an opera gala concert with the Symphony Orchestra of India.

Rüütel studied at the Georg Ots Music School in Tallinn and then at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague and the Dutch National Opera Academy, graduating from the Masters programme with Special Honours. Whilst studying in the Netherlands she was supported by Eesti Kultuurkapital. Rüütel won First Prize in the National Competition for Young Classical Singers in Estonia three years in a row in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

In 2009 Rüütel became a member of the prestigious Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, making her debut as Venerable Lady in The Gambler and covering the role of Blanche. Her roles for the company included Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel, Rosette Manon and Flora La traviata (also performed on tour in Japan), Second Lady Die Zauberflöte conducted by Sir Colin Davis, and Dorothée Cendrillon. She covered Madame Dangeville Adriana Lecouvreur, Charlotte Werther and Dunyasha The Tsar’s Bride.

Since leaving the programme she has returned to the Royal Opera House as Meg Page Falstaff in a new production by Robert Carsen, Wellgunde Der Ring des Nibelungen and as Marchesa Malibea Il Viaggio a Reims in a special gala performance. She also made her debut with Scottish Opera as Hänsel in a new production of Hänsel und Gretel, Blanche in a new production of The Gambler at De Nederlandse Opera, Sonyetka in a new production by Calixto Bieito of Lady Macbeth from the Mtsensk District at Opera Vlaanderen and Siegrune Die Walküre at Gran Teatre del Liceu. Other recent operatic engagements include Anina in a new production of Der Rosenkavalier at Dutch National Opera, Flowermaiden and Esquire in a new production of Parsifal at Teatro Real, Emilia Otello at Opera Vlaanderen, Kate Julian Owen Wingrave at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, as Nefertiti in Glass’s Akhnaten at Opera Vlaanderen and as Meg Page Falstaff at Royal Opera House.

Recent concert and recital performances include her Estonian recital debut, accompanied by Roger Vignoles, her US debut with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra singing Mozart’s Requiem; a hugely acclaimed debut performance of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius for The Three Choirs Festival; Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with the Residentie Orchestra of the Netherlands; Mahler Rückert Lieder at the Cadogan Hall; Beethoven Mass in C with City of Birmingham Symphony and Philharmonia orchestras; Zemlinsky’s Sechs Gasange at Philharmonie Berlin; and gala concerts in Latvi, the Czech Republic and with the RTE Orchestra and John Wilson.

2017-2018 season / 605 words. Not to be altered without permission