VALENTINA

Opera in two acts by Arturs Maskats

Conductor Modests Pitrens
Stage director Viesturs Kairišs
Scet and costume designer Ieva Jurjāne
Lighting designer Nicol Hungsberg

Valentina, the first opera by the internationally celebrated Latvian composer Arturs Maskats, celebrates a legendary figure and film historian Valentina Freimane. The opera revisits a dramatic period in the history of Latvia – 1939 to 1945  – a chapter that was crucial not only for the country’s culture and political future, but also for the coexistence of Latvia’s different ethnic groups. Freimane spent her childhood in Riga and Berlin, where her father worked as a lawyer for UFA film studios and her mother was an influential member of society and on intimate terms with the film greats of the time. On their return to Riga, this educated Jewish family succumbed to the Holocaust. Freimane’s parents and husband were murdered; Freimane herself survived the war in hiding. Today, Freimane lives and works in Berlin and Riga. “The story of Valentina Freimane’s life is inextricably linked with the history of both Latvia and Europe, and opens up a fresh perspective on a time period shot through with colour and contradiction. The most dramatic moments of Valentina’s life coincide with momentous events of the 20^th century, such as the country’s loss of independence – an experience that left Latvians physically and emotionally drained. And yet, Valentīna is more than simply a political work: shimmering through the depicted events is a story of profound sentiment and great love.” — Arturs Maskats. 

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