The culmination of the Sigulda Opera Music Festival – Puccini’s “Bohemian” with Maija Kovalevska / LR1 / / Latvijas Radio 1

Due to the pandemic, the Sigulda Opera Music Festival could not take place in full for two years, but this year it will be magnificent and rich again. The main event will be the performance of Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Bohème” on July 30 at the Sigulda ruins stage with soprano Maija Kovalevska in the role of Mimi.

Dainis Kalns, the organizer of the festival, admits that in some aspects the pandemic even had a positive effect on the organization of this year’s festival. In other words, various plots have lived in his imagination for 50 years, but he never had time to write them down. Such an opportunity finally arose during the pandemic, when life became less intense, and that’s when a book called “Insurmountable” was created. In general, the stories are the fruit of fantasy, but they also use autobiographical motifs, says Kalns:

“Foreign powers have tormented and humiliated us. I have dedicated the title story to women like my mother, who raised children alone in the post-war years. We were five children in the family, the father was exiled to Siberia for 25 years, the collective farm did not pay anything, but the milk still has to be handed over to the state. How could mom feed us, clothe us and send us to school? But she did it all. If all the agony she had to go through were to be described, it would be a very dark story, so I chose to create such an imaginative character against the background of love and romance, but with all the upheavals.”

Ilze Auzere, one of the first readers of this work, expressed her surprise at the romance of Daiņas Kalna’s book, which, in her opinion, is a completely unexpected aspect of Kalna:

“I already knew that he is a cloud pusher and a great idealist, how else would he not have organized the Sigulda Opera Music Festival for so many years. In addition, often at their own expense, even mortgaging their house so that the celebration could take place.”

The central event of this year’s Opera Music Festival will be an open-air performance of Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Bohemian”, in which Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska and Bulgarian tenor Mihails Mihailovs, whom Dainis Kalns discovered last year as an excellent fit for the role of Rudolph, will play the main roles:

“Covid and time somehow worked in favor of the Opera Music Festival, because the real festival was three years ago and new talents have appeared during this time. Last summer, the holiday was partially like that – one concert, to which Krasimira Stoyanova came and with her a good 33-year-old Bulgarian tenor Mihails Mihailovs, who delighted our audience. Well, it was clear to me that it was Rudolph. And if there is Rudolph, then we have Maia – Mimi. The best tenor in the world, Jonas Kaufmann, when he organized his benefit, invited Maia as a partner for the role of Mimi. If he is the first tenor in the world, then I can say that Maia is also the first Mimi in the world.”

Edmunds Freibergs, the director of the opera production, is also happy to meet Maija Kovalevska again. Before that, in Sigulda, he already had a successful collaboration with an opera singer in the opera “André Chenier”.

“Nowadays, when we live in tension and ignorance related to global events, good art is needed as a refuge for the soul,” says director Edmunds Freiberg. According to him, the opera “Bohème” with Puccini’s wonderful music and touching love story fits this mission very well.

“The story of “Bohemia” encodes a very important lesson about how careless and sometimes even cruel we treat the gifts of fate or God. In this case, for love. And only when that love is lost do we truly appreciate what has been lost.”

As the show will also be about this, Freiberg reveals how important it is to appreciate and preserve what we have been given. And such a thought is worth keeping in yourself for many things.

Jānis Apeinis, Marlēne Keine, Rihards Macanovskis, Krišjānis Norvelis and Andris Lapiņš will also sing in the “Bohemian” production at the Sigulda Opera Music Festival. Conducted by Vladimir Kiradzhiev. Set designer Aigars Ozoliņš, video artist Anta Priedīte and costume designer Ieva Kundziņa will take care of the visual image.

In general, the 28th Sigulda Opera Music Festival will last from July 29 to 31 and will offer five musical events, including a Gala concert on July 31.

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