Estonia celebrates Helgi Sallo’s 85th birthday

Helgi Sallo, an actress and singer who has been associated with Estonia, the national opera and ballet theatre, for more than 60 years, celebrated her 85th birthday there on September 20, ERR reported.

Colleagues congratulated Sallo in the White Hall before a performance of the musical “Cabaret”, while the audience honoured her in the theatre auditorium.

Ott Maaten, the theatre’s director general, said Sallo could be called an Estonian in the fullest sense of the word, adding that she was known and loved throughout the country.

“We admire and thank you. May you continue to have the strength to walk this path with us and bring us joy,” Maaten said.

Gert Raudsep, chairman of the Estonian Theatre Union, highlighted Sallo’s exceptional creative consistency. “There are not very many people in Estonia or worldwide who have remained in such astonishingly strong form for 60 years,” he said.

Karmel Killandi, editor-in-chief of entertainment programmes at Estonia’s public broadcaster, and television producer Raivo Suviste also congratulated Sallo on behalf of viewers and television staff.

Killandi presented Sallo with a gift on behalf of the entertainment programmes team: a trip to Stockholm. The team had looked for a possible sister city for Morna, and found a short cul-de-sac called Õnne in Stockholm’s Bromma district. Sallo can choose whether to take Laine, the friend of the character Alma from the series “Õnne 13”, her new fiancé Raivo Suviste, or travel with her own family.

Vahur Kersna also attended the celebration. In his birthday speech, he said he could not have imagined, even in his most fanciful dreams, that he would one day conduct a celebratory interview with Sallo. He called his 2021 programme “Helgi Sallo. The Touch of God” his best interview, a view Sallo shared.

Sallo currently helps colleagues develop their roles as a rehearsal director. She stresses that performing on stage requires more than simply saying the words: an artist must think about what they are saying and why.

Her roles at Estonia include numerous performances in the classical musical theatre repertoire. She currently appears at the national opera as Mrs Pearce in Frederick Loewe’s musical “My Fair Lady”, which has been part of the theatre’s repertoire since 2008.