Riina Airenne

(mezzo-soprano)

EDUCATION AND WORK
Riina Airenne has studied choral conducting at the Tallinn State Conservatory (1979–1984) in the class of A. Üleoja, and singing in the class of professor I. Kuusk (1984–1989). She continued her studies with Professor Shen Xiang, Ly Yinwei, Eva Plahova, Marga Schiml, Ludmilla Braun and many others. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In 1992, she was the grantée of Wagner’s Society. She received the Annual Music Theatre Prize for the title role in Bizet’s opera “Carmen” (1998). She has also received the Harju County Government Cultural Prize (1999) and the prize of Georg Ots (2001). Riina Airenne joined the Estonian National Opera in 1989 and is simultaneously a teacher at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre since 1992.

REPERTOIRE
Carmen (Bizet’s “Carmen”)
Barbara (Tubin’s “Barbara von Tisenhusen”)
Catharina Wycken (Tubin’s “The Parson of Reigi”)
Princess (Dargomizhsky’s “Rusalka”)
Madame Flora (Menotti’s “The Medium”)
Eboli (Verdi’s “Don Carlo”)
Ulrica (Verdi’s “Un ballo in maschera”)
Amneris (Verdi’s “Aida”)
Fenena (Verdi’s “Nabucco”)
Giovanna (Verdi’s “Ernani”)
Emilia (Verdi’s “Othello”)
Annina and Flora (Verdi’s “La traviata”)
Countess and Cherubino (Mozart’s “Le nozze di Figaro”)
2nd Lady (Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte”)
Helena (Boito’s “Mefistofele”)
Javotte (Massenet’s “Manon”)
Suzuki and Kate (Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”)
Countess (Tšaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades”)
Smeraldina (Prokofiev’s “The Love for Three Oranges”)
Lucia (Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana”)
Tisbe (Rossini’s “La Cenerentola”)
Giannetta (Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’amore”)
Muse-Nicklaus (Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann”)
The Witch (hit show “Pippi and Winnie the Pooh in Estonia”)
Roberta Gómez Dawson (Vihmand’s “The Formula of Love”)
Dame (Tüür’s “Wallenberg”)
Mrs Higgins (Loewe’s “My Fair Lady”)
Anhilte (Kálmán’s “Die Csárdásfürstin”)
Teacher (Vinter’s/Raudmäe’s “Pippi Longstocking”)