May 5 is the 45th birthday of Latvian National Opera soloist – bass-baritone Rihards Mačanovskis, which we celebrate in “Klasika” by listening to his arrangements of Latvian music from different years.

Rihards Macanovskis has been singing in our opera house since 2003, this year celebrating the 20th anniversary of his creative life on the stage, and he has accomplished a lot! The number of roles he staged is approaching 50, the singer’s performance in 2012 and 2014 was evaluated with the “Latvijas Gāze” award in the nomination “Best Opera Soloist”. On the other hand, in 2013, he received the Paul Saks recognition award, and was also nominated for the Great Music Award for an excellent performance of Peter Tchaikovsky’s romances together with the pianist Mārtins Zilberts.

Rihards Macanovskis received his musical education at J. Vītola’s Latvian Academy of Music, prof. In Guriya Antipov’s class. Worked with vocal teacher Margarita Gruzdev, as well as German bass Hans Sotin.

In addition to opera productions, Rihards Macanovskis has performed several times with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and other orchestras, in 2012 he performed Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem at the closing concert of the Riga Festival together with singers Elina Garanča, Mišela Krider and Josep Kan. Rihards has performed in many places in Latvia, Moscow, Aix-en-Provence, together with the LNO he went to Bergen, Dalhalla, Bydgoszcz (Poland), Macao and Tallinn for guest performances.

On May 5, congratulating Riharda Macanovski on his 45th birthday, we listen to his voice in the music of Latvian composers. These are the recordings made together with his stage partners and orchestras – songs by Artur Maskats with poetry by Ojārs Vācieš – “Asters in the blue mist”, “Čardāšs” and “While the grass pierces the snow”, Imanta Kalniņš’s song “Basām ħāļi dēzūlīte”, in which along with Rihard’s voice, the mezzo-soprano of Ieva Paršas is played, and the song “Tu neij prom” by Jānis Ķepīš with the words of Imantas Ziedoņas. Orchestra “Rīga” is led by conductor Valdis Butāns in these recordings.

In the selection of operas – Roplaini’s aria from Romuald Kalson’s opera “The Lost Son”, Jakubovski’s aria from Zigmar Liepiņš’s opera “Turaida’s Rose”, as well as a part of Imanta Kalniņš’s oratorio “Rīta čiliens” and “Dziesmiņa par riču-raču” from Elga Igenberg’s operetta “Annele” “.