In Jelgava, the Riga Opera Festival took place in a magnificent Gala concert. Since its establishment in 1998, the Riga Opera Festival has become a valuable tradition, which is awaited by both Latvian culture lovers and spectators from other countries.
This year, for the first time, opera lovers had the opportunity to watch the season’s new productions, meet both favorite domestic soloists and brilliant foreign stars, and enjoy the most beautiful opera melodies in the open-air concert hall “Mītava” in Jelgava!
At the gala concert, the audience enjoyed Italian and French opera music in opera arias by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Charles Gounod, Jacques Offenbach and Georges Bizet, as well as fragments of Richard Wagner’s operas “Lohengrin” and “Nuremberg Masterpieces”.
Several guest artists performed in the concert program created by the musical leader and conductor Mārtiņš Ozoliņš – laureate of many competitions, member of the Teatroalla Scala Academy, tenor Azer Zada from Azerbaijan, soloist of the Ukrainian National Opera, soprano Olha Matushenko, Mongolian bass Baterdene Doržcedens and mezzo-soprano Anna Matisa, already known to Latvian audiences.
They were joined by the outstanding bass-baritone Egils Siliņš and Latvian National Opera soloists Jūlija Vasiļjeva and Mihails Čuļpajevs, as well as the Latvian National Opera Orchestra.
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