Other events in Baltic States

On Monday 27 April, the Latvian National Opera in Riga will host the world premiere of Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds’ multimedia symphony Nordic Light. The Liepaja Symphony Orchestra and the State Choir Latvija under the direction of Maris Sirmais will conjure up a story about the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) – a phenomenon entwined with legends from the Nordic nations, reports eu2015.lv.

Since ancient times, the Northern Lights have been the subject of many tales and legends. Some people say that they are gusts of snow stirred up by a fox’s tail. Others call them the gates to heaven for the deceased, or a tireless battle between warriors, or even a ball game in the sky in which the ball is the skull of a walrus.

Several years ago, this unique legacy of the Nordic nations inspired Eriks Esenvalds to journey across Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland and Alaska together with director Renars Vimba and cameraman Dainis Juraga in order to document these ancient stories and the voices of nature.

The expeditions have resulted in this new symphony. The musical message conveyed by the orchestra and the choir will be supplemented with video projections featuring the legends as told or sung by various nations and shots of the Northern Lights by the Norwegian photographer Kjetil Skogli who calls himself an ‘Aurora chaser’. The music, the videos and the sounds of nature will give the audience an opportunity to experience the largest atmospheric optical phenomenon on Earth.

At the beginning of the concert the choir will also perform a capella songs written by some of the greatest Baltic composers – Arvo Part, Veljo Tormis, Rihards Dubra, Selga Mence, and Jekabs Jancevskis.

The concert is part of the Latvian EU Presidency cultural programme, which has contemporaneity, uniqueness and excellence as its core values.

As Latvian Television and Latvian Radio will be recording the Nordic Light concert, the audience is asked to arrive well in advance.