I got the March announcement in my email box that tickets were on sale for Tanglewood events and started thinking about how we would continue our art adventures on our return home. Then I remembered, seeing a concert at Tanglewood involves a rewarding experience AND an hour drive out there, an hour drive back, and a high ticket and ticket fee price. We are definitely getting spoiled in Riga with our art adventures in the city.
Let me start with how spoiled we are with the travel and distance to the performance venues before I start to "sing" the praises of the performances we've seen. From our apartment to the National Opera or the Great Guild Hall is a 25-30 minute walk, and if we feel lazy, it is a very short tram ride. In terms of cost, our tickets for opera and symphony are never over 15 euros, and we usually have great seats. So yes, access is great and some weeks, we attend 3 or more events. Here is a quick summary that will also serve as my own personal record to remember what we've seen.
Opera
The Latvian National Ballet and Opera house sits at the edge of the canal park in the area that divides the center city from the old city. The building exterior is a really impressive and easy-to-locate landmark built in the neoclassical architecture style in the 1860s. In 2000 an annex was added that is not visible in the photo that I took below; the annex is a smaller theater that lets the company stage children's shows and chamber operas.
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| Latvian National Opera |
Thus far we've been to the Latvian National Opera 4 times and seen performances of Amahl and the Night Visitors, Jenufa, Carmen, and La Traviata. Our first performance was Amahl and the Night Visitors. This opera is usually performed in the US around Christmas, but here it is always in the repertoire and is focused on bringing a young audience to the opera. The staging and costumes were super. The performance was in the annex space so it would be a few weeks before we would get to see the baroque interior of the opera house's main hall.
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| Amahl and the Night Visitors |
After Amahl, we've only been in the main hall for Jenufa, Carmen, and La Traviata. Since Jenufa is set in Moravia, it felt like a story that was fit for an Eastern European opera.
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| The view from our seats |
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| The front curtain for Jenufa |
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| Inna Klochko who sang Jenufa |
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| A table prepared for intermission |
Seeing Carmen showed us what a production brought into contemporary times could look like. This modern interpretation from Marie-Eve Signeyrole is set in a dark city with gangs, hip-hop-style dancers, and crime. It probably doesn't sound as good as it played on stage. The opera also incorporated video that was often shot live on stage and projected onto the set. The woman who played the role of Carmen, Ramona Zaharia had the whole package - super stage presence, a great voice, and she could act; she owned the house. If you aren't sure opera is your cup of tea, this is the production to go see.
I took Saadya to see La Traviata when he was visiting. It was nice to show him the opera house, but the staging of La Traviata was all off. Supposedly it was set in the 1950s, but we couldn't stop staring at the large white pleather couch/bed that was so clearly from the 1960s, and the costumes seemed to come from the 1930s. The cast was quite good, with perfect voices for the roles and they had a super sound in the big hall.
We have tickets to one more opera before we leave, Madama Butterfly which will be staged using the original sets from the 1925 production in Riga.
Symphony and chamber music concerts
Most of the symphonic and chamber music we attend is played in the Great Guild Hall in the old city. This was a merchant's guild building built in the mid-1800s.
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| The Great Guild |
The Guild is the home of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and the Sinfonietta Riga chamber group. These images show what it looks like, and its too bad, but I just can't blog the music here although many of the concerts are simultaneously broadcast on Latvian National Radio.
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| Riga Sinfonietta and Robert Ames |
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| LNSO and Saxophonia |
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| Riga Sinfonietta and Lorenza Borrani |
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| LNSO Chamber Music |
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| Riga Sinfonietta |
Sinfonietta Riga concerts:
- Adams Become River, Edmund Finnis Shades Lengthen and Schumann's Symphony No. 3 conducted by Robert Ames
- Lorenza Borrani soloist and leader performing Bruno Maderna Music of Gaiety, Haydn Symphony No. 56, Bruno Maderna Odhecaton, Hadyn Symphony No. 90
- Lisa Larsson sang Rolf Martinnson Song cycle Garden of Devotion (he sweetly introduced the piece) and also sang Mendelssohn Concerto aria for soprano and orchstra Infelice. The orchestra also played Ravel's Le Tambeau de Couperin and Ginastera Variacones concertantes.
- In June we will also attend the Sinfonieta's 17th Season closing concert
Latvian National Symphony Orchestra concerts:
- LNSO and Saxophonia
- LNSO with Goran Dora
- LNSO chamber music performance
- LNSO Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff
- LNSO Cello Dream Team
- In late May we will attend the LNSO season closing concert
In addition to the professional musicians we live near enough to Riga's premiere conservatory, the Jāzepa Vītola Latvia's Mūzikas Akadēmija (JVLMA) where we've attended violin, cello and organ student recitals and chamber concerts. These students perform at a super high level and sound great. One evening recently, we went to the Guild to see a very young Latvian violinist who has created his own chamber group, Daniil Bulayev and Davinspiro Camerata. He was pretty darn amazing and at this point we've been to enough JVLMA concerts that we recognized a few of the camerata members who are senior students there. If that wasn't enough music, every so often we go to the free concerts in St. Peter's Church, because we can!
Traditional music and dance
Latvians have a long tradition of folk music and folk dancing. This summer's big cultural event is the Song and Dance festival which only happens every 5 years. This year marks the 150th year of the Song Festival tradition which will take place in Riga from the 30th June to the 9th July, 2023. The Festival week is the culmination for which the organisers — the Latvian National Centre for Culture — and amateur groups have been preparing for many months. Over the ten days of the festival there will be performances of choirs, dance, wind bands, kokle (think zither), folk music, a Latvian folk costume exhibition, a folk craft art exhibition, and amateur theatre productions. This is a BIG DEAL here. People can't believe that we are leaving on June 20 and missing both Jāni (summer solstice celebration) and the festival.
To make up for missing the festival, this month we've attended some performances of traditional music and dance. The Riga Stradins University Folk Dance Ensemble Ačkups (yes, they are auditioning for the Song and Dance festival) had a nice and upbeat performance in April that we attended on the campus. This is nothing like the spring dance concerts at your local college, check out the energy (and the costumes!). The RSU team invited a few teams from other universities to show off what they've been working on. It was a great introduction to the folk dance tradition.
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| Ačkups - RSU |
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| Ačkups - RSU |
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| Ačkups - RSU |
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| Ačkups - RSU |
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| Ačkups - RSU |
Since this past week was the Day of the Restoration of Latvian Independence, with performances on the streets of the Old City, we've now seen adult social folk dancing performance and at the farmer's market we got to see a young children's dance team.
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| Dancers from Dobele at Kalnsiems Tirgus |
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| Dancers from Dobele at Kalnsiems Tirgus |
Admittedly not from Latvia, the most striking performance we've seen yet was by ensemble Basiani, the State Ensemble of Georgian Folk Singing. This was the first time I've ever heard traditional Georgian polyphony and we heard it in the Great Cathedral in the old city. You can get a sense of what we heard on this Video.
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| ensemble Basiani |
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| Playing a Gudastviri |
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| ensemble Basiani |
Riga Last Thursdays
Riga Last Thursdays is a gallery evening that takes place on the last Thursday of every month. Typically there are about 20-24 art spaces that open their doors to visitors. Our favorite spot for Last Thursdays is the Riga Art Academy which features a different set of student studios in each month. We've seen the student works from the design department, ceramics, jewelry, painting and just wandered the inside of this beautiful old school.
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| at Latvijas Mākslas Akadēmija |
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| at Latvijas Mākslas Akadēmija |
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| at Latvijas Mākslas Akadēmija |
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| at Latvijas Mākslas Akadēmija |
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| at Latvijas Mākslas Akadēmija |
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| at Latvijas Mākslas Akadēmija |
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| at Latvijas Mākslas Akadēmija |
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| at Latvijas Mākslas Akadēmija |
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| at Latvijas Mākslas Akadēmija |
Film
Sure, we see movies too! In February we attended a few documentaries at the ArtDoc festival at the Splendid Palace. Splendid Palace is my favorite movie theater. The venue was built for film viewing in the 1920s and has a crazy mix of Baroque, Jugendstil, and Rococo architecture. Where else in the world is the screen framed by palm trees?
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| Splendid Palace |
Since the festival we've returned to the theater to see a completely forgettable Latvian comedy called The Sun Shines 24 Hours, and to attend another documentary that was shown as part of the annual May 4 film marathon for independence day.
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| Tikamēr Lucavsalā Documentary |
Do you think we've been busy enough? We've barely scratched the surface of all the cultural events in Riga. It would be so much easier to see more if work, play, and sleep didn't get in the way.
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