Vanemuine Theatre
Estonia's oldest theatre company, staging drama, opera, ballet and musicals across three houses
Vanemuine grew out of the Vanemuine Society, founded in Tartu in 1865, which gave the first Estonian-language theatre performance in 1870. Professional work began under Karl Menning in 1906 in a new wooden theatre house, destroyed by bombing in 1944. The company is unusual in Europe for keeping drama, opera, ballet and musical theatre under one roof, with its own orchestra, chorus and ballet troupe, and it carries the status of Estonia's national theatre outside the capital.
Performances are divided between three buildings. The modernist Grand Building at Vanemuise 6, completed in 1967, seats about 700 and houses large-scale opera, ballet and musicals. The Small Building on Vanemuise 45a, the former German theatre, takes chamber drama and smaller operas, while the Harbour Theatre in a converted riverside industrial hall serves newer work. Productions also tour to other Estonian towns and occasionally to Latvia, and the season runs from autumn to early summer.
Highlights
- One company covering drama, opera, ballet and musicals
- Grand Building of 1967, a landmark of Estonian modernist architecture
- Small Building in the former German theatre on Vanemuise street
- Harbour Theatre, a converted industrial hall by the Emajogi river
