Latvian National Opera
Staging by Hotel Pro Forma

Conductor:

Modestas Pitrenas

Direction:

Kirsten Dehlholm

Concept:

Kirsten Dehlholm, Jon R. Skulberg

Choreography:

Jon R. Skulberg

Light design:

Jesper Kongshaug

Set Design:

Mia Stensgaard, Maja Ziska

Costume design:

Mareunrol’s

Dramaturgy:

Mikus Ceže

Video design:

Ugis Ezerietis

Hotel Pro Forma’s staging of Wagner’s third and career-launching opera focuses on the rise and fall of the Pope’s Tribune, the Cola di Rienzi.

Using a costume and set design inspired by the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, the themes are shown through opposition: light and darkness, volume and silence, young and old, human and animal.

The piece is reduced from five to two acts, and the audience hears music from the original composition and a new composition by Latvian sound artist Voldemars Johansons. The work features soloists, choir, ballet dancers, boys’ choir and a horse on stage.

Rienzi. Rise and Fall opens the European Cultural Capital 2014 in Riga, where Wagner wrote much of this opera.

Reviews:

Diena (Latvia) **** Riga 2014's most powerful souvenir...A perfect ensemble...a passionate, powerful stylistically vivid and heartfelt interpretation.

Exspressen (Sweden) A striking, stylised Danish music theatre fantasy.

Liutuvos Zinios (Lithuania) A combination of dream and reality...An important contribution to the contemporary opera culture.

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