The opera is a tribute to the cultural legend of Latvia – the outstanding film scholar Valentīna Freimanes (1922 – 2018).
“Valentina Freiman’s life was a huge set of VALUES and HUMANITY – CONSCIOUSNESS or UNCONSCIOUSNESS. If we delved deeper and understood the experiences and experiences of such wise personalities, wars would end in the world.”
Liana Lanfa, the author of the libretto, did not hide that she was pleased to learn that there will be a new production of Artur Muscat’s opera “Valentine” performed by high-quality professionals and is looking forward to the premiere.
“The events discussed in the opera allow us to look at people during great crises. Even now, the time of war in Ukraine confirms a deep crisis in the western world, in which each of us has a role to play, so I believe that the opera “Valentina” is relevant and will promote reflection on what is essential.”
Valentina Freiman’s childhood passed between Riga and Berlin, where her father was a lawyer at the UFA film studio, and her mother was a charming society lady around whom the flower of the cinema world of that time gathered.
After returning to Riga, the intelligent Jewish family was surprised by a mass genocide – a systematic, targeted and brutal extermination of Jews, in which both Valentina’s parents and her husband died, but Valentina, who was still very young at the time, hid until the end of the war.
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Extremely important in the play is the theme of love, which has played an important role in the fate of Valentina Freiman, with her miraculous escape from the horrors of the Holocaust, allowing her to endure to the end.
The director says that in the production of the Operetta Theater, the opera, which was originally written in full format, will be created as a mono-opera.
“My partner musicians will be on stage: violinist Gidons Grīnbergs, accordionist Inita Āboliņa, pianist Māris Žagars, who have been entrusted with a very difficult task. They will also work as actors at the same time, playing different characters in Valentine’s colorful love story.”
Both pre-filmed videos and studio-recorded audio will be used in the production, in which the following actors also participated: Đirts ķesteris, Zigurds Neimanis, Egils Melbārdis, Kārlis Rütentāls, Aivars Krancmanis, Gidons Grīnbergs, Henrijs Kozlovskis, tap dance master and school developer Māris Pūris, as also: Iveta Apine, Agnese Pauniņa, Dace Strautmane, Inga Martinsone, Rūdolfs Bacāns, Vitalijs Stankevičs, Pēteris Vaickovskis.
“Together with my lovely creative team, let’s unveil our version of Valentine’s life in music and multimedia. Ineta Sipunova, multimedia artist-scenographer, is excellent at conjuring scenes that speak for themselves and allow you to fully immerse yourself in the space.”
The world premiere of the first opera “Valentine” by the internationally known Latvian composer Arturas Maskats took place on December 5, 2014, becoming one of the most important events of the cultural program of Riga – the European Capital of Culture 2014.
2024-03-14 15:04:40
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