Henrietta Verhoustinska: In your creative biography, Ojārs Vācietis plays a huge role. We remember the wonderful concert “Vācietis. November. Piano Concert” in honor of the seventieth anniversary of the Germans in the early 2000s. Next year is the German 90s. Is there any intention of restoring this concert performance, staging it again?
Arturo Moscato: This is the intention, yes. We are thinking with Sigvardas Kļavas, Latvian Concerts, how those events could be further expanded. It is clear that the Latvian Radio Choir, which is not only a wonderful world-class interpreter of any choral music, whether classical or contemporary Latvian, is extremely patriotic of our poetry. Next year is the commemoration of the 90th anniversary of both Imantas Ziedonis and Ojārs Vācietis. And the Latvijas Radio choir is related to both one poet and another, I will be related to Ojāras Vācieti, probably.
In September you gave a beautiful auteur concert in Liepāja’s “Great Amber”, where your theatrical songs were performed by three different actors, two of them [Mihaila Čehova Rīgas] of the Russian Theater and Everita Piata-Gertner of the Liepāja Theater. Raymond Pauls always jokes about how actors interpret songs, but he himself continues to write these songs for the actors. What binds you in acting and theatrical songs?
The first prerequisite is probably that the actor is a musician, and thank God I’ve been extremely lucky in life with actors. The actors for whom I have written and with whom I have had a creative collaboration, I myself have somehow approached them as particularly musical people, this is perhaps the most important thing. They specifically deliver the text, they specifically deliver all the subtle nuances that are in the text, although they may not be able to do it vocally or not quite as well as a high-end professional would or be a master of light or pop genres, or even an opera singer, however the actor will do it alone and will do it with such a profound overview of the poem. Because I always compose a poem, I never write a melody, and then some poetry comes along. For me, the initial impulse is always exactly poetry.
Andrej Žagar Cultural Support and Development Fund has resumed its activity. You were Andrejs Žagar’s comrade in arms at the opera house [LNOB]. Were you the artistic director during Žagar?
Yes, all those seventeen years where we worked closely together. A lot has been lived, a lot has been lived and a lot has brought moments of absolute happiness. Andrejs knew how to excite and ignite, and the main thing he knew, he knew how to turn his sometimes crazy and completely crazy idea of him into a common idea for everyone and lead everyone to realize this idea. Although it seemed almost unreal, I wonder if it could happen, Andrejs knew how to tell us, and perhaps even himself, that it would happen and therefore the impetus had already been given to start working in that direction. I am very grateful to him, because he has given me an enormous charge of energy, perhaps for my entire life …
Even your works, the ballet “Dangerous Liaisons” and partly also the opera “Valentina”, which was staged after Andrei left the opera, but was created in the time of Žagar, these yours masterpieces …
Of course, it was quite difficult to combine an administrative burden with writing such great works. And Andrej and I sometimes argued that, let’s say, I can’t do it or can’t do it as well as I would like and how I should. But somehow destiny has changed and we have always been able to support each other even in very difficult moments.
How was Andrei as a person, as a personality, influenced by the decision of the Minister of Culture Žaneta Jaunzeme-Grande to dismiss him from the position of director of the opera?
It is difficult for me to say, because Andrei seemed to close at that moment, he remained a bit with himself, perhaps more than ever. The opera, it was the field of his dreams, it was the most ideal field of his activity, where he could make his dreams come true. He threw himself all over the place, threw himself into all kinds of projects, started being invited more as a director abroad, which meant he was less in Latvia. He also tried to create that Baltic festival [Baltijas muzikālās sezonas], who started competing in Jurmala, put his efforts into it. In a word, he was looking for where to put his creative energy of him, and in that sense he was extremely fast, awkward, but personally, of course, all of this affected him very deeply.
He also became seriously ill, and I think that had something to do with this fact in his biography. We made a movie with Zita Kaminska [LTV dokumentālā filma “Žagari”] about the Žagar brothers. Even at the end of his life, when the truth was already counted for him, Andrejs Žagar was still thinking about how to enter the competition for the position of opera director and was talking about his plans for the development of the opera.
Andrei had a fantastic quality, which a person has a lot, I think, from above: he never made mistakes about what didn’t happen or what didn’t happen. He could get inflamed quickly, be extremely tough, but he didn’t know how to hold a deep grudge, he always thought about the future even in very difficult situations. And even then, when his health was so threatened, he always tried to think about the future. We have been together on some trips abroad, even during his last period, I have always felt that mental tension and that desire to discover and do something more in Andreja. He was creative, he was an artist of life.
Tell me please, the Andreja Žagar Foundation for the Support and Promotion of Culture, what does it do, what are its main objectives and tasks?
The main tasks are to keep the name of Andrej in the cultural scene for those for whom this name is important and to introduce it to others as well. It’s been more than three years since Andrei left. But we are delighted that these concerts, which we organize under the name “Friends of Andrej Žagar”, have already, hopefully, become a good tradition. High quality opera music, celebration of high quality opera I would say. Svetki, the name that probably belonged most to Andrei. I think it would be important to make a book about him, there is a huge amount of material.
Edith Tischheiser writes this book.
Edith has known Andreja for more than forty years, just as I have known him for more than forty years since his first, early youth. And she knows and understands a lot in this extraordinary life. [..] What Andrei has always dreamed of: working with new people and he succeeded. Andrei had a unique ability to discover new talents.
Liepāja’s “Big Amber”, where the concert of your original theatrical songs took place, was also the season opening concert of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra with the new principal conductor Gunti Kuzma at the conductor’s desk, where your special triple opera “Dances of Childhood’s Butterflies”, written for a very unusual composition, was first performed: Reinis Zariņš played the piano, Iveta Apkalnas played the organ and Dita Krenberg played the flute. How did this unique combination come about, which never really happened in the history of music?
Thanks for such an interesting question! In fact, if I had known what it would have been like for me on the evening of September 17th when I came up with the idea, I would have gone a little crazy. [smejas]. The idea of writing “Childhood Butterfly Dances” was born, then it wasn’t called that, it was just an idea of writing such a concert after the premiere of my piano concert about five years ago, Iveta Apkalne seems to be there, Reinis Zariņš played that piano concerto. Then they both say, you know, you should write something for both of us together with the orchestra. I readily accepted. I say you are fantastic, I love you both so much and I will try to do my best. Then, I don’t know where, Dita Kreinberg came and said she had to be there too. I said yes, well, so be it [abi smejas]. But it had to happen in early March, for this premiere, two days before the premiere, Guntis Kuzma got sick with covid, it had to be canceled. And then, in the middle of this summer, I realized that two of these concerts would start the same evening … I thought, like in Eric Adamson’s poem, that God was playing with me.
Reinis Zariņš said that “Dances of Childhood Butterflies” covers the entire spectrum of childhood feelings, from the most dramatic to the brightest. What was the most dramatic and bright part of your childhood?
That period was not easy, I grew up in different families, you can tell. I grew up with my mother, then my mother had another family. Then I grew up with my mother’s sister, my godmother and also my godfather. I must say that these two people, in particular my godmother, were the greatest happiness of my life, because without her I would not have formed, I would not have finished the schools that I was lucky enough to finish. She has become the closest person to me. And for such a young child of seven, eight, nine, there are quite big transformations, this change of circumstances. At first it was thought that I would only stay there for a while, in the family of the godmother, but then it turned out that no, it is forever, for a lifetime. As the years go by and looking back; also a wonderful event – I was baptized on Christmas Eve in the small and beautiful church of Strenči, and it was my godparents who held me … Everything gathered here, and I thought I should write that concert about these memories. Neither the godfather nor the godmother are in this world, but I dedicate this to them. Therefore, that piece is filled with such a feeling of happiness, longing, sadness and perhaps even memories of such dizzying joy that are found only in childhood.
Artur, what will you present on your side in this autumn’s rich offer, what else can we expect from you?
I have undertaken some great works that I will try to do.
I heard a tango movie is being made.
Yes, the film is actually finished now. It is a documentary film “Tango for life” co-produced by Italy and Latvia. It is even difficult for me to define the genre of this film, because to a certain extent I participate as an actor (laughs) …
… Even if it is a documentary!
Yes. I never thought I’d be involved in something like this, but it’s interesting. The film is about my symphonic tango listened to by a couple in Italy, husband and wife who are passionate about tango. On the other hand, when I learn about their life situation, I focus on meeting them. The husband has been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for eighteen years, in principle the path is clear, because the disease is not exactly curable. But his doctors also believe that his tango dance, what tango requires of him: coordination of movements, ability to continuously control himself and to be physically worked, works in a very complex way in terms of movements, which is able to delay the progress of this disease in his body. And together with my wife, who is in charge of the tango courses, I am able to slow down this Parkinson’s, and this is the medical aspect, but the other aspect is that they are extremely bright people, sincere and open to the world, and I’m writing a new tango for them, they dance.
I hope this tango is also heard in a concert?
Yes, it’s only for about five minutes, I call it my little tango [smejas].
