Members of RWV Frankfurt support the renaissance of the Wagner Theatre in Latvia’s capital.

As early as during the members’ trip in autumn 2012, the then already closed building of the former German Theatre in the historic old town of Riga cast a spell over us. How wonderful it would be, we thought at the time, if life could return to the tradition-rich house where Richard Wagner worked from 1837 to 1839. This is now becoming a reality thanks to the dedicated chairman at RWV Riga, Maris Gailis.

Following the online members’ meeting in February, which focused on the theatre project, we launched a fundraising campaign and it turned out to be a success. Members of our association were extremely generous, so that the proud donation amount of 10,000 euros could be firmly pledged. The good news was received gratefully and with great enthusiasm by the Latvian Wagner friends.

RWV Frankfurt wishes all those involved in the renaissance of the Wagner Theatre continued success and is itself longing for the day of the opening. A members’ trip to mark the occasion is already firmly planned.

This entry was posted by Dirk Jenders on the homepage of the Richard Wagner Association Frankfurt (RWV Frankfurt).

Dear Sir/Madam, dear friends of Richard Wagner,

I would like to present to you today a project of outstanding and worldwide importance. It concerns the Wagner Hall and the German Theatre in Riga in beautiful Latvia, which is now once again an independent state, but belonged to the Russian Tsarist Empire during Richard Wagner’s lifetime.

Richard Wagner stayed in Riga with his first wife Minna for two years and filled the position Music Director at the theatre. For a while they were safe here from his Prussian creditors.

But Riga’s theatre was also the opera house in which Wagner started his musical experiences and began to experiment with a partially covered orchestra pit, which he only could bring to perfection in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus much later. It still plays the most important “musical role” there today.

In Riga, however, Wagner’s major expansions and developments in relation to grand opera also began to emerge, especially the text and score for his Grand Opéra “Rienzi”, took their beginnings in this place and the first two acts of “Rienzi” were created in Riga.

While fleeing from his creditors from Riga across the Baltic Sea to England and on to Paris, the “Flying Dutchman” was created in his mind’s eye, showing unmistakable traits of his own identity and his experiences of the dramatic flight from Riga.

Thus Riga is one of the most formative places of his work alongside Dresden, Venice and Bayreuth.

Let yourself be inspired by the special project of the reconstruction and renovation of the German Theatre with the “Wagner Hall”, which is part of an extensive building complex that needs to be renovated.

Above all, the aim was to prevent a shopping centre to replace the theatre, this was already under discussion, despite the building’s special historical background. Behind this major global project is none other than former Latvian Prime Minister Maris Gailis, Chairman of the Riga Richard Wagner Society. A large number of comrades-in-arms such as the current president of Latvia, Egils Levits, the Wagner great-granddaughter Eva Wagner-Pasquier, the German-Baltic and the German- Baltic exchange member of parliament Elisabeth Motschmann with the project manager Dr. Konrad Winckler and Mechthild Foet are represented as well as the Richard Wagner Associations and some sponsors who are involved in the reconstruction and renovation of the building complex.

The project was presented to the European Parliament in Brussels and met with great participation and lively interest.

The laying of the foundation stone will take place at the beginning of 2021 and the completion should be in 2024, if all plans can be kept. We want to be present on both occasions and ask our associations to participate.

The total volume of the renovation is 35 million euros. The amounts received by us (we have been asked to do this as a neutral institution) will be transferred in full to the company in Riga and our only task as a neutral association is to receive and forward the funds. We are following the conditions of the EU for subsidies, which may not be paid directly to the projects, but via neutral cultural institutions in Europe such as RWVI. I cordially invite you, your members and friends to participate financially with all your possibilities in this unique project.

We are convinced that the building complex, (5000 square meters of space), after its redevelopment through its conception as an international music center with its own concert hall and diverse training facilities for classical music and musicology under one roof, is ideally suited to revive a great European and worldwide cultural impulse, connected with the name Richard Wagner, especially in Eastern Europe. Here the famous sentence of Richard Wagner once again shows itself to be particularly stringent:

“Kinder, schafft Neues!”

Of course, the complete programme for the renovation of the entire complex is already available and we are pleased to present it to you on our website in English and German.

In cordial solidarity
Yours,

Rainer Fineske
Präsident RWV International

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Richard’s Dream

An international cultural centre is to be established in the former German Theatre in the Latvian capital Riga.

It is hard to believe that music history was once written behind the dreary façade with its crumbling brickwork and weathered window frames. After all, a memorial plaque announces that a certain Rihards Vāgners was active in the house as a conductor and composer between 1837 and 1839, and that in addition 1842 Ferenzs Lists, 1844 Klāra Vīka-Šumane and Antons Rubinsteins, and in 1847 Hector Berliozs were guests in the building. The former German Theatre in the Latvian capital Riga is now called the “Wagner Hall” and preserves the memory of the fact that Richard Wagner spent two decisive years of his early artistic life at this site. The Latvian spelling of the names of Wagner, Franz Liszt, Klara Wieck-Schumann, Anton Rubinstein and Héctor Berlioz has been distorted to such an extent that it is still possible to recognise the luminaries of early Romanticism who performed in the house.

Wagner conducted the concerts in Riga, devoted himself intensively to his first truly great opera (“Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes”) and made discoveries in the German Theatre which will be of decisive importance for his still embryonic project of a musical theatre encompassing all the arts. He was fascinated by the parquet floor rising like an amphitheatre and the darkened auditorium, from which the audience’s gaze is inevitably focused on the illuminated stage. He was also fascinated by the pragmatic solution, born of pure space constraints, to make the orchestra partially disappear under the stage.

Such experiences were decisive in the planning of Wagner’s own festival theatre in Bayreuth, where he had the audience rows rise in a similar way to Riga and even had the orchestra pit completely covered. The German Theater, designed as a kind of palace, was built by the German-Baltic Baron Otto Hermann von Vietinghoff as a private investor according to the plans of the German architect Christoph Haberland. Of course, there is almost nothing left of the original furnishings.

After the Riga Opera House was opened in 1863, the German Theatre lost its importance. During the Soviet era new fixtures were added, as the “Wagner Hall” the house housed various cultural institutions, and it also served as a library, dance hall and music club in the newly independent Latvia. The complex was closed a decade and a half ago, because the walls showed new cracks and other serious damage. Various initiatives to renovate the building and give it a new purpose have been stuck in local political squabbles. However, Maris Gailis, former Prime Minister of Latvia and chairman of the local Richard Wagner Association, has now given new impetus to the plan to turn the building into much more than just a Wagner pilgrimage site.

In the complex, which will hopefully soon be thoroughly renovated and expanded, an international cultural centre is to be created in which Wagner’s ideas of a Gesamtkunstwerk encompassing all forms of artistic expression on an equal footing are to be transferred to the present and future. Nothing less than a cultural “lighthouse” visible everywhere in Europe is to be created from the previously neglected building. Representatives of all genres, from musicians and directors to film musicians and lighting designers, should each work there for a while and be able to contribute their share to the further development of music theatre. Once restored, the theatre hall, which will hold around four hundred visitors, would at least be suitable for chamber concerts and opera performances with a small cast. In the other rooms, some of which have a stately appearance, young musicians from all over Europe could train in seminars and courses. The cultural centre should also be open to the public. Museum rooms, concerts, readings and festive events should also attract the crowds of tourists flocking to Riga.

This all sounds very promising, but the decisive factor will be whether the ambitious project can be financed. Twenty-five million euros have been estimated for renovation and expansion, and another ten million euros or so for equipment and various follow-up costs. The fundraising is in full swing, and the response so far from potential public sponsors such as private sponsors, patrons or patrons gives those responsible confidence. Gailis has convinced a whole range of personalities of the urgent need to save the building from further decay or even demolition and to prevent a shopping centre from being built on the historic site.

As allies, Gailis has already won over the current Latvian President Egils Levits, Wagner’s great-granddaughter Eva Wagner-Pasquier, Elisabeth Motschmann, a member of the Bundestag who is committed to German-Baltic exchange, project manager Konrad Winckler and German Wagner associations.

Latvian and German cultural workers, politicians and organisations are primarily committed to the project – Brussels and the individual member states of the European Community would have to contribute more than just a small mite to the development of such an ambitious international project.

Josef Oehrlein

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Wagner’s vision of the Festspielhaus

The former German Theater in Riga is to become an international music center / By Josef Oehrlein, Riga

It was only two years during which Richard Wagner worked as conductor at the Deutsches Theater in the Latvian capital, Riga, which at the time belonged to Russia. From 1837 to 1839, he obviously had to serve the routine opera repertoire of the time there in a rather bored manner. But at the same time he received groundbreaking impulses for his future work. He was fascinated by the amphitheatre-style rising parquet floor, the darkened auditorium with its focus on the illuminated scenery and the orchestra, which was partly concealed under the stage. These special features of the Riga theatre impressed Wagner and influenced his ideas of his own musical theatre building, as he later realised it in Bayreuth.

Wagner’s artistic development also received decisive impulses in Riga. In addition to opera, he created his own concert series, especially with works by Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven, and worked on his first truly great opera, “Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes”. He had already begun composing it before his time in Riga, although it was not premiered until 1842 in Dresden. And on his adventurous flight from Riga to escape his creditors, Wagner, who was notoriously over-indebted, had the inspiration to create an opera from his impressions of the stormy sea journey. It became the “Flying Dutchman”.

The German Theatre in Riga was a centre of German culture even beyond Wagner’s time. Franz Liszt, Clara Schumann and other renowned artists from the German-speaking world gave guest performances there. The German-Baltic Baron Otto Hermann von Vietinghoff had had the palace-like complex built as a private investor, as one would say today, in the second half of the eighteenth century; the German architect Christoph Haberland had planned it. When the new opera house in Riga, which opened in the sixties of the nineteenth century, went into operation in 1862, the German Theatre lost its importance. During the Soviet era, it was given new fixtures as the “Wagner Hall” and used for various cultural purposes, including a library, dance hall and music club.

The building has been closed for a decade and a half because of cracks and other defects, some of which were very serious. It seemed to be left to decay. There were repeated attempts to renovate the building and revive it, but the project got stuck in Riga’s communal squabbles, and above all there was always a lack of money. Another priority was the project to provide the city with a large concert hall. The “Wagnersaal” is not suitable for this purpose, although a large building complex opens up behind the inconspicuous façade on Richard-Wagner-Strasse. It accommodates a large number of medium-sized rooms, some of them of a stately character. But a hall for concerts and other events can be accommodated in the building for at most about four hundred visitors.

Riga still does not have a concert hall, apart from the Great Guild, but now the Wagner Hall project is gaining momentum. The driving force behind the project is former Latvian Prime Minister Maris Gailis, chairman of the Riga Richard Wagner Society. He has convinced a number of personalities of the necessity of saving the building from decay or even demolition. As allies, he has already brought on board the incumbent Latvian President Egils Levits, Wagner’s great-granddaughter Eva-Wagner Pasquier, Elisabeth Motschmann, a member of the German Bundestag who is committed to German-Baltic exchange, and project manager Konrad Winckler, as well as German Wagner associations, and above all several sponsors who have already expressed their serious commitment to financing the reconstruction and expansion.

In the meantime, there are quite clear ideas on how the building complex can be used: as a musical cultural centre with a restored theatre hall, a museum and rooms for seminars and for young musicians to meet luminaries in their respective fields in an international scholarship programme. The Riga-born violinist Gidon Kremer, for example, would like to maintain an office in the building and offer master classes. But the centre is also to be open to the public. The reconstructed hall would at least be suitable for chamber concerts and opera performances with a small cast, for example of works from the baroque period, and the museum could develop into a magnet for the flocks of tourists who come to Riga mainly from cruise ships.
The three-storey building complex with a total area of five thousand square metres, which can be extended to five storeys, is still owned by the city of Riga, but it is to be handed over to the local Wagner Society under conditions of use; a law to this effect is expected to be passed shortly. Twenty-five million euros have been estimated for the renovation and expansion, and another ten million euros or so for the equipment and various follow-up costs. Fundraising is still in progress. In an interview with this newspaper, Gailis expressed confidence that the renovation work could begin in a year or two. The music centre could then open in 2024 at the earliest.

In the meantime, the project is largely a Baltic-German project. In view of the importance of Richard Wagner as a European artist, Brussels and the European countries in general must also commit themselves to the preservation of the Palace of Culture and its future sensible use. Nothing would be worse than for the house to fall into the hands of commerce. Sad to think that a shopping centre could move in where Richard Wagner spent two crucial years of his artistic life.

published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 6. Dezember 2020

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