World Premiere of Mari Vihmand's The Formula of Love at Estonian National Opera
On 17 October 2008, the world premiere of The Formula of Love, a new opera by Estonian female composer Mari Vihmand, took place at the Estonian National Opera. Telling the universal and eternal story about man, woman, and love, the opera brings together various cultural traditions and intellectual backgrounds.
Mari Vihmand (b. 1967), who belongs to the flourishing generation of Estonian young female composers, has written numerous spectacular chamber works. Often inspired by poetry and literature, Vihmand composes in an idiom that unites romantic imagination with rational formal design. At times, the lush palette of Vihmand’s music achieves a neoexpressionist depth of emotion. Vihmand graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music as a student of Prof. Eino Tamberg (1990) and obtained Master’s degree with Lepo Sumera (1997). From 1995 to 1997 she studied at the Lyon Conservatoire in France under Gilbert Amy and Philippe Manoury. Since her marriage, she has lived in the German town of Bad Urach near Stuttgart. Vihmand’s first opera, The Story of Glass, based on the fairy tale allegories of Hans Christian Andersen and Villy Sorensen, premiered in 1995 at the NYYD Festival and was awarded with the Cultural Award of the Republic of Estonia. Her orchestral work Floreo received first prize at the International UNESCO Composers' Rostrum in Paris in the under-30 composers' category in 1996.
The libretto for The Formula of Love, by the Estonian female writer Maimu Berg, is based on the novel The Mathematics of Nina Gluckstein by Esther Vilar (b. 1935), the scandalous German writer and trained physician who was born in Argentina and now lives in Spain. Vilar is the author of 14 plays, but she became internationally known with her The Manipulated Man (1971), a bestselling analysis of sexual politics. The Mathematics of Nina Gluckstein has been a bestseller in France, Spain, and Germany. Mari Vihmand’s opera takes place in Buenos Aires in the 1950s and includes a story within a story. Roberta Gomez, a well-known Argentinean writer, retells the love story of Nina Gluckstein and a popular tango-singer Santelmo. The opera meditates on male and female “strategies” for love, on public and private spheres of human life, and on idols and media. The two-act stage work, which also incorporates passages from Ovid and Oscar Wilde, is sung in Estonian and in Spanish.
The opera is sung by the soloists of the Estonian National Opera - Riina Airenne, René Soom, Helen Lokuta, Angelika Mikk, Kristina Vähi, Janne Shevtshenko, Juuli Lill, Andres Köster and Priit Volmer. The conductor is Arvo Volmer, chief conductor and music director of Estonian National Opera. The stage director is Liis Kolle, who has studied theatre and literature at the University of Tartu and graduated from Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin, as an opera producer in 2005. The choreographer is the German-Brasilian Ana Mondini.
Additional performances of The Formula of Love have been scheduled for 18 October, 19 and 21 November.