World premiere of the ballet Three Meetings will take place at the Latvian National Opera on April 26. The production is included in the programme of Riga 2014 – European capital of culture.

Three exceptional Latvian composers. Three international-level choreographers. Three new world-debut ballets. This production is a unique event – the opportunity to observe the characteristic tones of the Latvian mentality and the music typical to the culture, all expressed and experienced by several masters of ballet who hail from various countries. New choreography star and Stuttgart Ballet choreographer Argentine Demis Volpi offers his interpretation of Pēteris Vasks’ northern laconic melodies. The music of Rihards Dubra, which suggests an intensely emotional experience, inspires Ballet Brno Artistic Director Mário Radačovský. In turn, Georgs Pelēcis’ bright, heartfelt world of sound is translated to the language of dance by primaballerina Bridget Breiner of the United States, who has recently also sparked as a choreographer. Music Director and Conductor of the production is Atvars Lakstīgala.

First meeting IN HONOUR OF

Composer Georgs Pelēcis: ‘My opus “In Honor of Henry Purcell” was composed in 2009, the year this great composer’s jubilee was celebrated. Learning about the plans to create this production, I prepared a new version of the score – since not all the instruments of the earlier version were available in Riga – and now I am very interested to see this artist’s visualization and choreographic transcription of my music.’

Choreographer Bridget Breiner: ‘The inspiration was the music itself – I found this particular piece of Pelecis very interesting because it has many different colors to it. We make our idols and teachers into gods – but they were all just men. That can also be an inspiration – they were all just human, like us, and look what amazing things they could achieve. In a very abstract way the ballet is about that joy – the joy of belonging to a line of extraordinary humans who make beauty in the world.’

Second meeting ELEGY

Composer: Peteris Vasks

Choreographer: Demis Volpi

Soloists:

Sabīne Guravska / Alise Prudāne

Jūlija Brauere / Viktorija Jansone

Ieva Rācene / Natālija Samborska

Raimonds Martinovs / Viktors Seiko

Aleksandrs Osadčijs /Aleksandrs Kaļivods

String Quartet: Svetlana Okuņa, Aija Frišenfelde, Silvija Krauze, Inga Sunepa

Composer Peteris Vasks: ‘Music is born from love. Composing is a beautiful work, charged with responsibility, and the most significant part of it is the result – that whether or not the music is able to move and inspire the listeners, musicians, choreographers? They are the ones who breathe life into the sound slumbering, in a latent form, captured on the page of the musical score. I am glad that my Second string quartet “The Songs of the Summer” has inspired Argentinean Demis Volpi who has invested it with his own story, emotions and imagination.’

Choreographer Demis Volpi: ‘The work I’ve created is about freedom and hope, two forces that should always be present in our human nature. I do not treat the music in a literally structural sense, I do not think that every note has to be represented by a movement. For me it is much more important to understand what Pēteris Vasks is transmitting to me on an intellectual and emotional level and then try to portray that, the very core of this gathering of incredibly poetic sounds, through the vocabulary of dance.’

Third meeting PIANO CONCERTO No3

Composer: Rihards Dubra

Choreographer Mário Radačovský

Soloists:

Iļana Puhova / Sabīne Guravska / Alise Prudāne,

Sergejs Neikšins / Arturs Sokolovs / Zigmārs Kirilko

Piano: Endijs Renemanis

Composer Rihards Dubra: ‘I await the premiere quite impatiently because I have met ballet-master Mário Radačovský whose ideas truly fascinate me – they reflect my personal emotions so closely as if he had been present in the process of writing the music!’

Choreographer Mário Radačovský: ‘There is a story I want to tell with the music and the dance: the main heroine looses her man and then she finds out he is in a prison. Her first priority is to go and see him, so she goes against different obstacles. I like happy endings, I do not like people who sink in depression. There are so many things in life to be depressed about, and then you go to the theater, will you want to be depressed again?’

Further performances: April 27. May 18