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City Guide  - Riga  - Culture
Culture

Despite its years spent suppressed under Soviet rule, Latvian culture is alive and well. The years since 1991 have seen a renaissance of interest in and expression of Latvian cultural identity and this has been mirrored with new developments like the reopening of Riga's Opera House. For most of the twentieth century, Latvia was renowned as a centre of ballet excellence and the 1970s saw Riga revered for its avant-garde experimentalist theatre and cinema. Dainas is the traditional Latvian folk song that will occasionally be performed in Riga. The mournful ballad-type songs deal with universal themes like love, marriage and death, echoing what German historian, Johann Kohl, wrote about Latvia in 1841: 'Every Latvian is a born poet, everyone makes up verse and songs and can sing.'

Music:
Riga Cathedral's acoustics make it an obvious choice for big recitals, Doma laukums 1 (tel: 721 3498), although the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra is housed in the Great Guild Hall, Amatu 6 (tel: 721 3798; web site: www.lmuza.lv/orchestra). Tickets for performances at Riga's rebuilt Opera House, Aspazijas 3 (tel: 722 5803; fax: 722 8240; e-mail:mail@opera.lv; web site: www.lmuza.lv/opera/bal-rep.htm) are also available in advance. The box office is open 1000-1900.

Theatre:
Theatre in Riga dates back as far as the thirteenth century. In the 1970s, Riga was regarded as a centre of avant-garde exploration and some of this spirit still remains today. The main theatres include the Dailes Theatre, Brivibas 75 (tel: 229 4444), Kabata Theatre, Peldu 19 (tel: 951 6517), National Theatre (Nacionalais Teatris), Kronvalda 2 (tel: 732 2759), New Riga Theatre (Rigas Jaunais Teatris), Lacplesa 25 (tel: 728 0765), and the Russian Drama Theatre (Krievu Dramas Teatris), Kalku 16 (tel: 722 4660).

Dance:
The quality of the Riga Ballet (tel: 722 5803; web site: www.lmuza.lv/opera/ballet) is a legacy of the Soviet Union, when Riga's ballet school was third in importance, after the Kirov and Bolshoi. The company has produced many major stars, including Mihail Baryshnikov (who is now a famous modern ballet star living in America), Maris Liepa (who went on to star for the Bolshoi Ballet), and his son, Andris Liepa (who found his own slice of fame with the American Ballet Theater in 1989/90).

Film:
Latvian cinema has grown in strength over the last few decades with a series of award-wining documentaries. The 1990 European cinema prize, the Felix, was awarded to Skersiela (Side Street), the work of local film-maker, I Seleckis. The Daile Cinema, Barona 31, and Kino, Lacplesa 52/54, both show films in English with Latvian or Russian subtitles.

Cultural events:
Riga is a major cultural centre with many events throughout the year. Gadatirgus is an annual arts festival in June that focuses on traditional Latvian arts and craft. The Folklore Festival is held in the first week of June at the Open Air Ethnographic Museum, with explorations of traditional literature and song. The Summer Solstice Festival causes a mass exodus from the city as the locals head to the countryside for some serious partying. The Riga Summer Festival in July brings an array of chamber and symphony orchestra performances at venues throughout the city. Two massive pan-Baltic festivals that come to Riga every few years are the Baltika International Folk Festival (in Riga in 2000) and the Folk Song Festival, which comes to Riga next in 2001. Another huge upcoming event is the Latvian Singing and Dancing Festival, which will bring over 30,000 singers and 15,000 dancers, dressed in national costume, to Riga in the summer of 2001.

Literary Notes

Graham Greene's Journey Without Maps (1936) delves deep into pre-war Riga. Letters from Latvia (1986), by Lucy Addison, is an illuminating diary of a 79 year old who refused the easy option of leaving Latvia at the outbreak of World War II and had to endure both the German and Soviet occupations as a result. Colin Thubron's Among the Russians (1983) recounts his memorable drive through the pre-glasnost Soviet Union, including an adventure in Riga. Thubron's style is at its best as he captures the nervy edge of the time. The Singing Revolution (1992), by Clare Thomson, refers in its title to one of the most remarkable events in modern European history, when citizens of all three Baltic States linked their three capitals together with their hands in a massive show of solidarity against Soviet rule. The book is an account of her travels in the region in 1989 and 1990. The most comprehensive historical look at the events surrounding the revolutions of 1991 is by Anatol Lieven in The Baltic Revolution (1994). This weighty tome cuts deeply into Latvian history, culture and modern politics.

Other scholarly studies include The Baltic States: The Years of Independence 1917-40 (1995), by Georg von Rauch and The Baltic States: The Years of Dependence 1940-80 (1993), by Romualdas Misiunas and Rein Taagepera. One of the most controversial books around is The Holocaust in Latvia 1941-1944: The Missing Center (1997), by Andrew Ezergailis, which provides an insightful and balanced account of this provocative subject and addresses the ultra-sensitive issue of Latvian participation in the Holocaust. New Latvian Fiction(1998), is a patchy collection of contemporary Latvian writing, which provides an insight into today's Latvian literary scene.



Copyright © 2001 Columbus Publishing
    
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