Georg Ots - song of Pali Racz - his last performance (1975)

GEORG OTS (19201975) a legendary baritone, the most well-known and beloved singer in Estonia is one of the few artists that can impress even people who have never seen his live-performances. Georg Ots was the soloist of the Estonian National Opera from 1945 till 1975 but he also sang all over the former Soviet Union. He was the first Estonian singer to perform on the stage of the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow (as Eugen Onegin in 1964, at a performance where Tatyana was sung by the legendary soprano Galina Vishnevskaya). Ots sang with equal success both opera (e.g. don Giovanni, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Demon, Iago in Othello, Rigoletto, Germont in La Traviata), operetta (Danilo in Die lustige Witwe, Mr X in Die Zirkusprinzessin etc) and musical (Fred Graham in Kiss Me, Kate and Cervantes / don Quijote in Man of La Mancha) as well as chamber music and even popular songs of his era. In the last years of his life Georg Ots suffered from cancer but between the operations still appeared on stage. This video is his last performance before the wide audience. It is recorded at the Estonian Television in January 1975. The song of Pali Racz from the operetta by Imre Kalman Der Zigeunerprimas has a significant symbolic meaning here the old gypsy remembers his youth, love and happy days in the past. The orchestra of the Estonian Television and Radio is conducted by Peeter Saul.