On Sunday, 21 May, a time capsule ceremony will be held at the Wagner Theatre, symbolically marking the start of the restoration work of the building.

Since 2017, the Riga Richard Wagner Society (RRVS) has been organising flash events on Wagner’s birthday to draw public attention to the need to renovate the Wagner House. This year, the reconstruction of the theatre will finally start and the Society has decided to celebrate the 210th anniversary of Richard Wagner by burying a time capsule in the facade of the building. It will contain various documents and testimonies of the time, including the founding minutes of the RRVB, historical images of the building and current drawings of the project, messages from the patrons of the project, a message from the members to their descendants, as well as a joint message from three generations of Wagnerians – Eva Wagner-Pasquier, her son Antoine Wagner and her granddaughter Daphne Wagner.

The ceremony will be attended and solemn speeches will be made by Māris Gailis, Chairman of the Board of the RRVB, Egils Levits, Patron of the Wagner House restoration project, and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Chairman of the German-Baltic Parliamentary Cooperation Group, David Bartels, Deputy Head of Mission of the German Embassy in Latvia, Kerstin von Lingen, President of the Baltic Armour Association, and Rainer Fineske, President of the International Association of Wagner Societies. There will also be a celebratory address by the project’s patron, former artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival, Eva Wagner-Pasquier.

The ceremony will take place in front of the Wagner House, 4 Vāgnera Street, Riga.The artistic design of the event is by the Grāfienes collective – set designers Marianna Lapiņa, Dace Ignatova, Ildze Jurkovska and Justine Jasjukeviča – while the time capsule is by metal artist Uģis Traumanis. After the ceremony, everyone is invited to a short solo concert by the Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestra in Wagner Hall.

The last public event at the Wagner House will be the closing concert of the Andrey Osokin Freedom Festival for Ukraine on 10 June. The building will be handed over to the builders for the first light demolition work in July, and the building permit is expected by autumn this year.

Earlier this year, it was announced that €20 million had been raised for the Wagner House renovation project – €15 million from the Emissions Trading Instrument (ETS) and €5 million from the German government. These funds represent half of the total amount needed for the project and will renovate the building to a so-called “grey finish” – the building’s structures will be renovated, the external envelope will be insulated, internal and external networks will be replaced and energy-saving systems will be installed. The technical design of the building was launched in February and is now actively underway. Last year, the main contractor, SBSC, a general partnership with Sarma and Norde Arhitekti as main designers, was selected through a public tender procedure, while the engineering and construction supervision will be carried out by Būves un Būvsistēmas SIA. Zaiga Gailes has been hired as a subcontractor for the architectural and interior design.

The vision of the project is to create a beacon of European culture in Riga. Over the next few years, the unique 5000 square metre building ensemble in Old Riga will be renovated and given a new lease of life. The importance of the project is also confirmed by the patrons of the Wagner House restoration project – Egils Levits, President of Latvia, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, and Eva Wagner-Pasquier, former artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival and great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner.

The restoration of the Wagner House will bring a number of significant benefits, not only in terms of the diversity and accessibility of cultural events for the people of Latvia, but also in terms of strengthening the image of Riga and Latvia as a cultural centre and the link with Richard Wagner, who was Kapellmeister at the House for two years (1837-1839).

The project will not only renovate the building and the theatre hall, but will also create masterclasses and a Richard Wagner museum. The house will realise Wagner’s vision of GesamtkunstWerk21 – an incubator for all art forms that will become an international centre for young artists worthy of the 21st century.

After more than a decade, textile artist Inta Amoliņa returns with her personal exhibition The Return, which will be on view at Riga Wagner until 29 April, showing visitors the diversity of textile art and highlighting one of its techniques in particular – textile mosaics.

The exhibition will feature eighteen of the artist’s works created between 1992 and 2023, ranging from large bedspreads to wall hangings, and incorporating a variety of textile techniques – batik, embroidery, painting and printing. The exhibition will provide an opportunity to explore this historic and once famous centre of Riga’s cultural life, before the restoration of the Wagner House.

In the mid-20th century, textile mosaics emerged as a unique branch of textile art in Europe, Scandinavia and the United States, alongside crafts. Until the middle of the last century, textile mosaics were not widespread in Latvia (the process of inheritance was missing) and no information about them was available in the local information space. Therefore, the first attempts of textile artist Inta Amoliņa in 1983 to research and interpret the possibilities of the textile mosaic technique in the context of professional textile art are particularly noteworthy. The newly discovered technique became the main form of artistic expression for Ita Amolina, which she skillfully transformed into outstanding textile works and several collections of textile mosaic works. Thanks to her initiative in exploring textile mosaic techniques, this branch of textile art aroused the interest of other Latvian artists. “Textile mosaic is a play with the density, texture, colour, sheen of fabric and its treatment – batik, printing, embroidery, painting. It is a great friendship with fabric and thread,” says Inta Amoliņa.

Nature is her source of inspiration, which is realised in geometric compositions. Some of the textiles on display will be tonal, geometrically saturated works of textile mosaic art that have enriched the Latvian textile art scene for 30 years. The artist’s works are held in the Latvian Artists’ Union Museum, the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, the Latvian National Museum of Art, as well as other museums and private collections.

Inta Amoliņa was a lecturer at the Fashion Design Department of the Art Academy of Latvia from 1997 to 2018, as well as a jury member of several competitions for young fashion designers and artists. Her work has been exhibited in Belgium, France, Estonia, Great Britain, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Germany.

The exhibition will be on view at Wagner House, Riharda Wagnera iela 4, from 14 to 29 April. Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday: 13.00-18.00
Weekends: 12.00-17.00

2023 has started with important news for the project of the Renaissance of the Wagner Theatre: funding of €15 million from the Emission Trading Instrument has been approved and work has started on the technical design of the building.

In autumn 2022, Riga Richard Wagner Society successfully participated in the competition “Greenhouse gas emission reduction in architectural monuments of national importance” announced by the Latvian Environmental Investment Fund. At the very end of 2022, a positive decision was received on the allocation of €15 million from the Emissions Trading Instrument (ETS), which was the maximum funding available for a single project in this competition. The project is co-financed by funds from the German government in the amount of €5 million. Currently, €20 million has been committed for the reconstruction of the Wagner Theatre, which will bring the building to a so-called “grey finish” – the building’s structures will be renovated, the external envelope will be insulated, internal and external networks will be replaced and energy-saving systems will be installed. The technical design of the building started in February this year, and the building permit is expected by the end of this summer. A total of €40 million is needed for the reconstruction of the Wagner Theatre – there is still a gap for interior works, restoration works and theatre technology, so fundraising from various foundations and private donors is ongoing.

Last year, the main contractor, SBSC, was selected through a public tender process, with Sarma un Norde Arhitekti as the main project designer, and Būves un Būvsistēmas as the engineer and construction supervisor. Zaigas Gailes birojs has been hired as a subcontractor for the architectural and interior design. Experts from other countries have also been brought in – for example, theatre technology solutions will be developed by Theater Advies from the Netherlands, while Nagata Acoustics, headed by Yasuhisa Toyota, who have been involved in the design of the Elba Philharmonic and the Paris Philharmonic, as well as many other notable projects, will act as consultants on theatre acoustics.

The vision of the project “Renaissance of the Wagner Theatre in Riga” is to create a European beacon of culture in Riga. Over the next few years, the unique 5000 square metre building ensemble in Old Riga will be renovated and given a new lease of life. The importance of the project is also confirmed by the patrons of the Wagner House restoration project – Egils Levits, President of Latvia, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, and Eva Wagner-Pasquier, great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner and former artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival.

The restoration of the Wagner House will bring a number of significant benefits, not only in terms of the diversity and accessibility of cultural events for the people of Latvia, but also in terms of strengthening the image of Riga and Latvia as a cultural centre and the link with Richard Wagner, who was Kapellmeister at the House for two years (1837-1839). The project will not only renovate the building and the theatre hall, but also create masterclasses and a museum. The Wagner House will realise Wagner’s vision of “GesamtkunstWerk21” – an incubator for all art forms that will become an international centre for young artists worthy of the 21st century.

The project “Reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the Riga Wagner House”, 4 Riharda Wagner Street, Riga, LV-1050, by renovating and restoring the Riga Wagner House” is supported by the Emissions Trading Instrument and the German Bundestag.

On Friday, 25 November, at 19.00, Riga Wagner House, Riharda Wagner iela 4, will host the performance “Dialogue of Valkyries” by artists Meija Sarmīte Kalniņa and Simona Orinska, in which the audience will have the opportunity to experience the primal, vital, bodily unconscious aspects of art, reflecting on the relationship between feminine energy, loss and authority.

One of the conversations in the Valkyrie Dialogue performance will be The Presence of Absence, created by Maya Sarmīte Kalniņa – a visually spectacular, baroque journey into the territory of loss, where individual and collective consciousness merge in a shared ritual action. The conversation continues with Simona Orinska’s performance There She Goes My Beautiful World, which depicts the progression from external authority to internal authority, a complex multi-stage process in the development of any individual, society and even country. The performance will also feature sound artist Arvis Kantiševs and singer Anta Eņģele. The performance will also feature a Lielvārde belt woven by Ligita Embrekte, a crown created by Brigita Stroda and a costume designed by Inese Gibeiko.

Both artists echo Wagner’s notion of total theatre in their performances with operatic baroqueness and drama, a rich synthesis and interplay of performing arts elements using sound, music, body, voice and visuals. The two works are also united by the aesthetics of butoh art. In addition, the unifying element of the performance is the “Valkyries” – divine beings who accompany the souls of the heroes who died in the war to the underworld and are also their favourites. The performance will seek a balance between these different forces, which in today’s situation in our lives are particularly confronted with danger and uncertainty, both on a personal and on a wider scale.

The performance The Presence of Presence, created by Maya Sarmīte Kalniņa, premiered at the International Festival of Performance Art Starptelpa in June 2022. It was created in collaboration with a group of Butō performance artists. Simona Orinska’s solo premiere “There She Comes, My Wonderful World” took place in New York at Grace Gallery in September 2022, as part of the Baltic Art Festival, together with a group of artists from the Latvian Centre for Performance Art.

It is significant that the performance will take place at the Wagner House in Riga, as the audience will have the opportunity to see inside the building before the reconstruction and restoration work begins, which is planned for the middle of next year. Admission from 18.00, with a café on site.

Tickets: https://ticketshop.lv/en/events/4613

Simona Orinska (left) and Sarmīte Meja Kalniņa, publicity photo.

Already in late 2020, it was reported that the German Bundestag had approved €5.2 million for the restoration of the Wagner Theatre. Last August, an agreement was signed between the German Embassy and the Richard Wagner Society of Riga for the first €200 000. These funds were used to prepare the project’s sketch phase. The project has now developed significantly and on 6 October the agreement for the remaining approved funding of 5 million was signed in the Wagner Hall.

The next phase of the Wagner Hall renovation project – the preparation of the technical design – will start this year. The German government’s co-financing of €5 million will be used over the next four years (2022-2025) and is intended to co-finance the preparation of the technical design and the first phase of construction. The reconstruction and restoration work is scheduled to start in mid-2023, with the opening of the renovated Wagner Theatre planned for 2026.

On 6 October, not only the financing agreement was signed, but also a letter of intent on cooperation in the implementation of the Riga Wagner Theatre restoration project between the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Riga Richard Wagner Society. At the ceremony, the contract was signed by the German Ambassador to Latvia Christian Heldt and the Board of the Riga Richard Wagner Society, while the letter of intent on cooperation in the implementation of the Wagner Theatre restoration project was also signed by the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Latvia Nauris Puntulis.

The vision of the project “Renaissance of the Wagner Theatre in Riga” is to create a European beacon of culture in Riga. Over the next few years, the unique 5000 square metre building ensemble in Old Riga will be renovated and given a new lease of life. The importance of the project is also confirmed by the patrons of the Wagner House restoration project – Egils Levits, President of Latvia, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, and Eva Wagner-Pasquier, great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner and former artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival.

The restoration of the Wagner House will bring a number of significant benefits, not only in terms of the diversity and accessibility of cultural events for the people of Latvia, but also in terms of strengthening the image of Riga and Latvia as a cultural centre and the link with Richard Wagner, who was Kapellmeister at the House for two years (1837-1839). The project will not only renovate the building and the theatre hall, but also create masterclasses and a museum. The Wagner House will realise Wagner’s vision of “GesamtkunstWerk21” – an incubator for all art forms that will become an international centre for young artists worthy of the 21st century.

More information:
Signe Viška
Public Relations Manager, Assistant to the Chairman of the Board
signe.viska@vagneriga.lv

The Riga Richard Wagner Society invites you to celebrate Richard Wagner’s 209th birthday on Sunday, 22 May, starting at 16:00, by joining in a flash mob.

Every year, the Riga Richard Wagner Society (RRWS) has celebrated the birthday of the great German composer by organising a special flash mob to draw public attention to the building at 4 Wagner Street (formerly the First City Theatre of Riga) and its renovation project. This year is no exception: with Wagner’s best-known compositions playing from the windows of the building, everyone will have the opportunity to take a photo with Wagner himself and his companion, Robber a Newfoundland dog who was the composer’s companion during his time in Riga (1837-1839). Participants are invited to take a photo of themselves and their friends with Wagner and Robber and post it on social media with the hashtag #vagneriga.

On 22 May, the doors of Richards Wagner Street. 4 will be open to everyone, offering a unique opportunity to see inside the building where Richard Wagner himself once waved his conductor’s baton.

Since the first RRWS flash mob in 2017, when the future of the Wagner House was still unclear, significant steps have been taken: the former director of the Bayreuth Festival and Wagner’s great-granddaughter Eva Wagner-Pasquier, the President of Latvia Egils Levits and the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier have become patrons of the renovation project. In October 2020, the building at 4 Wagner Street was transferred to the RRWS and at the end of the same year the German Bundestag approved the allocation of €5.2 million for the renovation of the Wagner House. A total of EUR 35 million is needed for this purpose. The renovation and reconstruction work is scheduled to start in the summer of 2023 and the renovated building is expected to open its doors as the Wagner Theatre of Riga in 2026.

Everyone is invited to support the revival of the Wagner House by donating in person on Sunday (a special donation box will be available) or by bank transfer at their convenience.

More information:
Signe Viška
Riga Richard Wagner Society
Public Relations Manager
signe.viska@vagneriga.lv
+371 22028087

The windows of the Wagner House in the Old Town of Riga feature works by the artists’ union “4K”, the graduates of the Department of Scenography of the Art Academy of Latvia. These are scenographic models for ballet, play, rock opera and postmodern opera, or miniatures of visual solutions for the stage.

Young artists Madara Mela, Katrīna Ieva, Andris Kaļiņins and Ieva Stalšene, or the collective “4K”, have chosen different materials for their diploma work, but the results are united by musicality, large-scale staging of the big hall stage, visual development and the ambition of the scenographer himself to be the sole creator of the image of the performance and to think about performances in general during a viral epidemic.

Madara Mela’s exhibition offers a glimpse of the postmodern opera “Einstein on The Beach” by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson, which breaks the rules of classical opera. The opera is about the technological revolution, and its main symbol is Albert Einstein, a genius born in the 19th century, and the realisation of the invention of a super-weapon, the atomic bomb. Thesis supervisor – Reinis Suhanovs.

Katrīna Ieva boldly interpreted the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. This work of art looks at the last days of Jesus’ life through the prism of contemporary socio-political and human lovelessness. Thesis supervisor – Monika Pormale.

Andris Kaliņins created the set design for the romantic ballet “Swan Lake” (Лебединое озеро) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In the stage version, academic beauty and painted prospects meet a technological counterforce in the form of stage projectors. Thesis supervisor – Viktors Jansons.

Ieva Stalšene has interpreted the symbolist play “The Blue Bird” (L’Oiseau bleu) by Maurice Maeterlinck in her stage model. The visual elements of the idea are drawn from quantum physics and techno culture, resulting in the intertwining of Maeterlinck’s plot with the story of a world that has not been fully created, where courage, hope and happiness must be found. Thesis supervisor – Kristians Brekte.

This year’s graduates of the Department of Scenography of the Art Academy of Latvia have already identified their interest in collaborative work during their studies, formed their own artists’ union and named it “4K”.

Over the past two years, “4K” has exhibited its work in several exhibitions, including the Kalnciema Street Quarter Gallery, the exhibition “The End of the World”, the exhibition “45.5 m2” at “Cēsu alus brewery” and the high-profile exhibition “Special Needs” at the Eduards Smiļģs Theatre Museum of the the Latvian Academy of Culture, dedicated to women’s rights in the theatre.

The exhibition is curated by the graduates in collaboration with their thesis supervisors, the Art Academy of Latvia and the Riga Richard Wagner Society.