Page 125 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2019. Vloga nacionalnih opernih gledališč v 20. in 21. stoletju - The Role of National Opera Houses in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 3
P. 125
opera and national culture in latvia: the centenary balance
death is mourned and Baniuta swears to take revenge. Ironically, Baniu-
ta meets Vižutis, her husband’s killer, on Midsummer night and they de-
clare their love to each other. The next day they discover each other’s ori-
gin and Baniuta, according to her oath, has to kill Vižutis despite being in
love with him.
The opera has two finales: the tragic finale where Baniuta and Vižu-
tis commit double suicide, and the “optimistic” finale ordered by the Sovi-
et Artistic Commission upon preparation of the opera as the representa-
tive of Latvian national culture for the Art Decade in Moscow, 1941. In the
“optimistic” finale, the people liberate Baniuta from the oath of vengeance,
and the couple head into a happy future, favourable to all the communi-
ty. Ironically, although the composer Alfreds Kalnins disliked the com-
missioned “optimistic” finale, the final chorus song, which is the arrange-
ment of a Latvian Midsummer folk song, was very popular during Soviet
times, when the Midsummer celebration was not officially allowed – no-
body could blame anyone for singing a chorus from an opera.
Despite different ideologically modified interpretations of “Baniuta”
and “Fire and Night” during the Soviet time, both operas are included in
the Latvian Cultural Canon and are considered to be the cornerstones of
Latvian national professional music culture in the opera genre. When Lat-
via regained independence in 1991, the opera house was closed for renova-
tion. It was re-opened in 1995 with a postmodern production of “Fire and
Night” staged by Alvis Hermanis, where most of the traditional national
representations were portrayed ironically. The modernity of the end of the
20th century brought changes in relationship between opera and national
culture.
The Concept “My (Our) White House”
The concept of the “White House” in relation to the Latvian National Op-
era emerged during the 1920s as a colloquialism used by opera singers,
which soon conquered the press and became a widely used metaphor for
the opera house in Riga during the First Republic (1918–1940). The concept
reached the unofficial status of national symbol after WW2 mainly in Lat-
vian diaspora society and the press in Canada, the USA, UK, Germany, etc.,
and in the memoirs of emigré Latvian singers, the tenor Mariss Vētra and
baritone Ādolfs Kaktiņš. Actually, Mariss Vētra was the one who invent-
ed this concept using it in his newspaper articles and even writing a book
or memoirs “My White House” (1954, published in Latvia in 1991). Ādolfs
123
death is mourned and Baniuta swears to take revenge. Ironically, Baniu-
ta meets Vižutis, her husband’s killer, on Midsummer night and they de-
clare their love to each other. The next day they discover each other’s ori-
gin and Baniuta, according to her oath, has to kill Vižutis despite being in
love with him.
The opera has two finales: the tragic finale where Baniuta and Vižu-
tis commit double suicide, and the “optimistic” finale ordered by the Sovi-
et Artistic Commission upon preparation of the opera as the representa-
tive of Latvian national culture for the Art Decade in Moscow, 1941. In the
“optimistic” finale, the people liberate Baniuta from the oath of vengeance,
and the couple head into a happy future, favourable to all the communi-
ty. Ironically, although the composer Alfreds Kalnins disliked the com-
missioned “optimistic” finale, the final chorus song, which is the arrange-
ment of a Latvian Midsummer folk song, was very popular during Soviet
times, when the Midsummer celebration was not officially allowed – no-
body could blame anyone for singing a chorus from an opera.
Despite different ideologically modified interpretations of “Baniuta”
and “Fire and Night” during the Soviet time, both operas are included in
the Latvian Cultural Canon and are considered to be the cornerstones of
Latvian national professional music culture in the opera genre. When Lat-
via regained independence in 1991, the opera house was closed for renova-
tion. It was re-opened in 1995 with a postmodern production of “Fire and
Night” staged by Alvis Hermanis, where most of the traditional national
representations were portrayed ironically. The modernity of the end of the
20th century brought changes in relationship between opera and national
culture.
The Concept “My (Our) White House”
The concept of the “White House” in relation to the Latvian National Op-
era emerged during the 1920s as a colloquialism used by opera singers,
which soon conquered the press and became a widely used metaphor for
the opera house in Riga during the First Republic (1918–1940). The concept
reached the unofficial status of national symbol after WW2 mainly in Lat-
vian diaspora society and the press in Canada, the USA, UK, Germany, etc.,
and in the memoirs of emigré Latvian singers, the tenor Mariss Vētra and
baritone Ādolfs Kaktiņš. Actually, Mariss Vētra was the one who invent-
ed this concept using it in his newspaper articles and even writing a book
or memoirs “My White House” (1954, published in Latvia in 1991). Ādolfs
123
