Modigliani, the Cursed Artist: Ballet

About the Event

Thomas Edur’s ballet "Modigliani, the Cursed Artist" will have its world premiere at the Estonian National Opera.

“Modigliani – the Cursed Artist” is Thomas Edur’s debut as a stage director at the Estonian National Opera. The ballet tells an exciting story of the stormy life of Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920), one of the most famous bohemian artists of the 20th century. His art forms a bridge between the generation of Cubists and the Art Deco painters of the 1920s. Legends are told about Modigliani’s life – his eccentric nature, his bragging, emotional twists, passionate affairs with writers Anna Akhmatova and Beatrice Hastings, and artist Jeanne Hébuterne, a dream to mount Parnassus and his rivalry with Picasso, health problems and the onset of tuberculosis that he tried to conceal by consuming alcohol and drugs excessively – it all provides colourful material for the birth of an astonishing stage‐work.

“What I am seeking is not the real and not the unreal but rather the unconscious, the mystery of the instinctive in the human race.”
Amedeo Modigliani

Tauno Aints graduated from Viljandi Culture College in 1998 and from Estonian Music Academy where he studied composition with Lepo Sumera and Helena Tulve. He has worked as a concertmaster at the male choir Sakala in Viljandi and the Drama School of Estonian Academy of Music and teacher of theoretical subjects at the choir studio Ellerhein. Since 2001, Aints is a teacher of music theory and music history in Tallinn Music High School. In 2002–2007, Aints was active as a pop musician in the ensemble “Genialistid”. His music has been performed by Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Estonian Dream Big Band, Ensemble U:, etc.

Choreographer‐Stage Director: Thomas Edur
Libretto: Irina Müllerson and Thomas Edur
Music: Tauno Aints
Music Director and Conductor: Risto Joost
Designer: Liina Keevallik