Alfred Sällik

He started as an actor, but studied also voice with Armanda Degli Abbati, among others, and from 1911 became a successful tenor at the Tallinn opera theater. He sang lots of operetta (Danilo, Paris, Adam, Orphée, Barinkay and countless others), but from 1915 also opera (Canio, Tonio in Fille du régiment, Alfredo, Pedro, Hoffmann, Jeník, Erik, Cavaradossi as well as – surprise – Figaro in Barbiere). From 1918, he doubled as a stage director.

However, his alcoholism was so bad that it got him fired in 1928; the next seven years, he sang in provincial theaters, in revues and cabarets.

He came back to the Tallinn theater as an operetta singer from 1935 to 1940 (mostly in comprimario parts, and with limited success). His recordings (primarily trifles) are from that period, and the voice is a wreck.

On the house where he lived on Rataskaevu 18, in the very heart of Tallinn, a plaque commemorates him.

Reference 1 and portrait source, Reference 2