Ivo Kuusk

Originaly, he trained in Tartu to become a construction expert, but soon began to sing in the choir of the Vanemuine Theater; eventually, he studied voice instead of construction, first in Tartu, then in Tallinn with Viktor Gurjev until 1967. Already from 1963, he was a soloist at the Tallinn opera theater. From 1967 to 1978, he sang at the Vanemuine Theater (this time as a soloist), and from 1978 to 2006, he was again a member of the Tallinn opera. As early as 1968, he started to also teach voice (until 2011).

Besides opera, he sang a lot of masses and oratorios: Lied von der Erde, Schöpfung, Jahreszeiten, Mozart's and Verdi's Requiem, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Mass in C major and Missa solemnis, Dvořák's Stabat mater and Requiem, Bruckner's Te Deum and so on. His enormous operatic repertory was mostly of a very different nature: he sang Italian opera from Nemorino, Edgardo and Edoardo (Un giorno di regno) to Don Carlo, Canio and Otello, Russian opera from the Young gypsy, Lenskij and Vodemon to Aleksej (Igrok/The gambler by Prokofyev) and Grigorij, French opera from Massenet's des Grieux to José, but also Tom Rakewell (The rake's progress), Erik, Tamino, Tonio, Florestan and the title role in Taktakishvili's Mindia, plus lots of operetta, and Estonian operas of course... it's an impressive list.

Reference and picture source