Since her graduation from the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covernt Garden, in 2011, Estonian mezzo-soprano Kai Rüütel has been engaged at Royal Opera House, Dutch National Opera, Teatro Real, Vlaamse Opera, Gran Teatro del Liceu, Scottish Opera, Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, and Dallas Opera. A consummate singer and actress, she has collaborated with such directors as Robert Carsen, Laurent Pelly, Keith Warner, and Calixto Beito.

This season, Rüütel makes her US operatic debut with Dallas Opera, singing Olga in
Eugene Onegin. She also returns to Teatro Real to sing Mary in Der fliegende Holländer;
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Emilia in a new production of Otello; and
Opera Vlaanderen for the world premiere of Infinite Now by American-Israeli
composer Chaya Czernowin, staged by Australian actor and theatre director Luk
Perceval.

Rüütel studied at the Georg Ots Music School in Tallinn and then at the Koninklijk
Conservatorium in The Hague and the Dutch National Opera Academy graduating
from the Masters programme with Special Honours. Whilst studying in the Netherlands,
she was supported by Eesti Kultuurkapital. Rüütel won first prize in the National
Competition for Young Classical Singers in Estonia three years in a row in 2001, 2002
and 2003.

In 2009, Rüütel became a member of the prestigious Jette Parker Young Artists
Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, making her debut as
Venerable Lady in The Gambler and covering the role of Blanche. Her roles for the
company included Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Rosette in Manon and Flora in La traviata
(also performed on tour in Japan), Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte conducted by Sir
Colin Davis, and Dorothée in Cendrillon. She covered Madame Dangeville in Adriana
Lecouvreur, Charlotte in Werther and Dunyasha in The Tsar’s Bride.

Since leaving the programme, she has returned to the Royal Opera House as Meg
Page in Falstaff in a new production by Robert Carsen, Wellgunde in Der Ring des
Nibelungen and as Marchesa Malibea in Il Viaggio a Reims in a special gala
performance. She also made her debut with Scottish Opera as Hänsel in a new
production of Hänsel und Gretel, Blanche in a new production of The Gambler at De
Nederlandse Opera, Sonyetka in a new production by Calixto Bieito of Lady Macbeth
from the Mtsensk District at Vlaamse Opera and Siegrune in Die Walküre at Gran Teatre.