PHOTO: the group "Pērkons" sings the concert program "Man, You Are!" At VEF Culture Palace

This concert program is a dedication of the group “Pērkons” to the outstanding poet Māris Čaklajs, who would have turned 80 this year.

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In the first part of the concert program, the special guests were the opera singer, one of the former “Thunder people”, the current Minister of Culture Nauris Puntulis and the musician Elizabete Balčus. In the second part, the brightest fragments of rock opera were sung by the Latvian National Theater actor Egils Melbārdis, singers Annija Putniņa and Elizabete Balčus together with the group Pērkons.

Twenty years ago, Melbārdis participated in the production of “Gypsy in a Dream” at the Daugavpils Theater and in 2002 received the “Players’ Night” award for the role of Jānis Man as the best young actor. The actor admits that after twenty years he feels happy to sing the wonderful and at the same time very complex fragments of the rock opera again.

The musicians believe that today Māris Čakla’s texts are even more accurate and very accurately describe today’s situation and events in Latvia – at a time when we have entered the shackles of a pandemic, when people now have to live in the shadow of various restrictions. Quoting Māris Čaklo, “… but let the fog be mist, the dew is the dew / and let people not die from it” and “You who know about the freedom to exist / know how to exist in your freedom- / gather like the sea… / Man all together.”

The next concerts of the tour will take place on November 1 in Liepāja Concert Hall “Lielais dzintars”, on November 15 – in Concert Hall “Cēsis” and on November 21 – in Ventspils Theater House “Jūras vārti”.