VIDEO PODCAST: Discussion about Bernard Haitink (1929-2021), Salzburg, Roger Doyle's Finnegans Wake Project, the English Symphony Orchestra, the Chopin Competition Warsaw, Los Angeles Opera and other subjects.
VIDEO PODCAST: John Dante Prevedini leads a discussion about Classical Music and Artificial Intelligence, including contributions from George Coulouris, Michael Stephen Brown, April Fredrick, Adrian Rumson and David Rain.
Estonian soprano Margarita Voites was born Margarita Lombak in Moscow on 30 October 1936 to parents of Estonian and Polish-Russian origin. Initially she studied bibliography at Tartu State University but was 'discovered' singing the leading role in a university production of the operetta Das Veilchen vom Montmartre by Imre Kálmán, and was persuaded to study singing with Linda Saul at Tallinn Conservatory.
She was a soloist at the Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu (1964-69) and at the Estonian Theatre in Tallinn (1969-90). She appeared internationally, and her roles included Frasquita in Carmen, Violetta in La traviata, Gilda in Rigoletto, Margarethe in Faust, Xenia in Boris Godunov and the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor. She also appeared in a series of opera films.
She retired from theatre work in 1990 but continued singing in churches and concert halls until 2009, and released a CD, Ave Maria, in 2005. A compilation CD, Prima donna assoluta, was released in 2007.
Margarita Voites died on 20 June 2024, aged eighty-seven.