Biography

Georg Ots was the famous Soviet and Estonian singer. He was born in the family of musicians. The grandfather directed the the Ilmarine Society choir, and his father Karl Hans was an opera singer - the People's Artist of the Estonian SSR.

Teachers in the primary school assumed that a future star is growing up, but Georg himself did not identify music as his main occupation.

Handsome talented teenager became interested in fencing and basketball, then he became a member of the swimmers club and in 1939 won the National championship. In 1940, following his father’s advice he entered the Polytechnic Institute. At the age of 21, Georg was mobilized to the front. The Army units were formed in Leningrad. Hence, the military service ended for Georg Ots in a month, when he met the artistic director of the Estonian ensemble, who selected artists to perform at front lines.

After the war ended, Ots returned to Tallinn, where he worked as a chorister in the theater "Estonia". He fished the Tallinn School in two years (instead of the prescribed four). By that time, he had already performed several solo parts. Then Ots studied at the Tallinn Conservatory under the famous teacher and outstanding Estonian baritone Tiit Kuusik.

The vocalist’s repertoire during the post war period was mostly comprised of light pop songs. They sounded in a completely new manner thanks to the velvet sound color of his voice.

In 1950, for the performance of the main part in the opera "Eugene Onegin", the singer was awarded with the State Prize and became the principal soloist in the theater.

In 1956, the Estonian artist was titled the People's Artist of the USSR. The 1950’s – 60’s became triumphant for Georg Ots and his tours in the cities of the Soviet Union and Europe. However, the nationwide fame came to the artist after the release of the musical film by Yuli Khmelnitsky “The Circus Princess” in the middle of the 1960’s. Everybody sang the songs and melodies from the movie “Mr. X” were, and the role of Étienne Verdier in the melodrama became the brightest event in the musical life of the Soviet Union.

Georg Ots toured extensively both in the Soviet Union and beyond its boundaries.

Compositions in 20 various languages were in the repertoire of the Estonian-Russian baritone. Georg Ots insisted on the performance of folk songs in their original language, not to lose their soul when translated.

In the early 1970’s, the artist was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Georg Ots undertook eight consumptive surgical interferences. He courageously endured the disease and, barely recovering, indulged in working.

For 2 years, which the fate presented him after those operations, Ots managed to do a lot during those two years presented by the fate. He gave a concert in Leningrad, played the key roles in the opera "La Traviata" and in the movie “Colas Breugnon", toured with the theater in Europe, performed in Moscow where he will always be loved and remembered.

In 1974, George Ots ran the opera class at the conservatory of his native Tallinn, where he briefly taught the talented students. The same year, the artist headed the theatrical society.

The artist died in the early autumn of 1975. Ots was buried at the Forest Cemetery in Tallinn.

Based on the revised texts from the popular science publication "Hundred of Great Vocalists"; LLC Publishing house "Veche", Moscow