On December 5, the premiere of the opera “Matīss, Cup Bajārs” by Imants Kalniņš and Aleksandrs Čaks will take place in Liepāja’s “Big Amber”. The composer of Chaka’s dramatic poems, Imants Kalnins, turned into an opera 20 years ago, reports TV3’s “900 Seconds”.
Although the poem was turned into an opera a long time ago, only now, thanks to the composer’s family and friends, the ambitious work will reach the audience.
Rehearsals of Imants Kalniņš’s opera take place in Riga. Conductor Ainars Rubikis conducts the rehearsal of the Sinfonietta Riga Chamber Orchestra. He is the one who persuaded the son of Imants Kalniņš to deliver the opera score to the musicians in secret two years ago.
“I ask Jonathan’s half-brother Jonathan to” quietly “bring the score from Liepaja,” the conductor recalls.
The making of the opera “Matīss – Kausu Bajārs” has been kept secret from its author for a long time.
“It simply came to our notice then. The first thing that happened was such small digital pieces of music written on a computer. Of course, we didn’t suffer and started sending Dad. He was very surprised for the first time, ”says the conductor.
Opera director Rēzija Kalniņa talked to light artist Ainārs Pastars, who has usually worked in rock concerts. He is expected to show the opera in a new light in this show.
“This will be the first opera in my lighting career, very interesting. Things close to my heart meet here – music, there is also a theater, an interesting experience, ”says Pastars.
Baritone Armands Siliņš plays the opposite of Ignatius in the role of the main tenor Matiss. The opera singer points out that he often has to portray angry and dark characters as a baritone: “A good image is a tenor and a bad image is a baritone. As a baritone, I have a lot of work to do with bad characters. That’s the traditional baritone repertoire. “-
The only women Irena plays the role of soprano Viktorija Pakalniece. Alexander Chuck, 120 years old this year, Imants Kalniņš has had strong feelings in creating his works, and the singer feels: “When Aleksandrs Čaks wrote a poem and the time when Imants Kalniņš composed music for this opera. Both of these times are significant in that they were both extremely in love. In my opinion, Irena symbolizes exactly how much these opera heroes are in love.
It took musicians, playwrights, choreographers, set designers, lighting artists and other artists two years to create a beautiful collaboration – the opera “Matīss – Kausu Bajārs”.
The premiere of the opera will take place in Liepaja, on December 5, in “Big Amber”.
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