The Latvian National Opera will open its season with the story of eternal love on September 10, and it will be the premiere of the ballet “Dracula” by the Polish choreographer Krzysztof Pastor. It will be immediately followed by three more news – the premieres of two operas and one ballet, which is a “storage” of the pandemic.
The opera has decided to organize its work in such a way that both vaccinated and non-vaccinated spectators will attend the performances, therefore it will offer two levels of security measures. Despite the restrictions, the artists have worked hard last season, but the pandemic situation has had some effect on their work.
The well-known Polish choreographer Krzysztof Pastor created the ballet “Dracula” three years ago by order of the Western Australian Ballet. At first, he even had some doubts about the offer, as he felt that “Dracula” was too often interpreted as a comedy in art without being taken seriously, and it did not seem appealing to him. But then he read Brem Stoker’s famous novel, watched the Oscar-winning Francis Ford Copole’s film “Dracula” and decided to accept the offer. He was especially inspired by the music of Wojciech Killar for Kopola’s Gothic cinema. This music from the film is also the basis of Pastor’s ballet, but he has also used other Killarney compositions, including symphonic music.
Krzysztof Pastor
Photo: Baiba Kušķe / LR
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As Krzysztof Pastor emphasizes, the theme of vampires is only the top layer of the story, but it was important for him to reveal the deeper codes of this story: “It’s mostly a story of love, of eternal love. is ready to sacrifice his life to save his beloved.
Yesterday, I discussed this story directly with the dancers and pointed out that it is not a horror story, but a very deep and humane message. “
Krzysztof Pastor has worked with our White House for many years and can appreciate the level of ballet artists at the moment, and now he pays special tribute to them: “Despite the pandemic, your dancers are full of enthusiasm, motivated to work. for at least 20 years, and I would say that the ballet troupe is in even better shape now than ever before.I am especially pleased to work with Julia Brauer and Viktor Seiko, but I can only say the best words about others.The ballet “Dracula” was created before the pandemic, and
I would very much like people to forget this still-prevalent theme for at least a couple of hours while watching the show and allow themselves to be fascinated by art. “
Aivars Leimanis, our artistic director of ballet, also appreciates the work of ballet artists in spite of all restrictions, but also honestly admits that it was not easy, and there are also consequences that last season full-fledged work was possible only for two months:
“What is a new problem now, and not just with us, but it is revealed, talking to colleagues in virtually all ballet troupes, that there is a very high level of trauma.
As if we did not stop training all the time, but without these regular performances, the body begins to “ask”. But despite all this, ballet is in very good shape right now. Preparing for the premiere, which will be extremely interesting. It won the award several years ago as the best show in Australia. Many ballets stand in line for this show, including the Finnish National Ballet, and this show is also planned in Warsaw and Brisbane. We are proud to be the second to perform this ballet. “
Ballet dancer Jūlija Brauere also admits that although she has been training throughout the pandemic as much as possible, she has now had to resume intense work so quickly: “Unfortunately, this year we are no longer used to the workload we are getting. , we train every day from 11 in the morning to 18 in the evening, and morally we understand that, yes, now we have a load, but the body has got rid of it, and he is in a state of shock. , making “Dracula”, and then we had a freer week, because Christoph had to leave, and the week we started to get out of that shock, all the pain started to rain out. , everything is fine for now, and I hope we will stay that way. “
In the new production “Dracula” Jūlija Brauere has the main role of women, she feels like Mina, and the choreographic score is very interesting:
“Krzysztof works so hard with us, he ‘puts’ everything in us so much that really, when you go on stage, you feel your role to the full and the choreographic thought.”
The National Opera will open its season on September 10 with the premiere of the ballet “Dracula”. It will soon be followed by three more new productions – the opera “Simons Bokanegra”, “Cinderella” and the ballet “Two Meters”. A number of interesting events are expected in the season after that, among them a new production of Jānis Kalniņš’s opera “Hamlets”.
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