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Destinations · Europe · latvia · Riga · Routes ·

"Riga is described to me as the nicest place in the world, especially when it comes to earning money..." wrote the famous German composer and reformer of the opera Richard Wagner to his wife, Minna, shortly before he left Berlin for Riga, which was at the time a provincial capital of the Russian Empire. But, due to unpaid bills and unceasing legal action against him, his time in Riga was short -- only two years, from 1837 to 1839. But these years proved to be quite fruitful from the creative standpoint. And ever since Latvians have enjoyed calling their capital "Wagner's city".

Wagner's first home in Riga was on Kalēju iela, approximately where the newer part of Galerija centrs shopping centre now stands. As he was waiting for his wife to move to Riga, Wagner wrote, "My dear Minna: See, I've already rented a place to live for one year and truly appreciate both of its large rooms and kitchen, where you will be able to prepare something in the evenings -- sandwiches with sausage or pancakes or cottage cheese patties.... Come immediately to my apartment on Lielā Kalēju iela by the merchant Saul. But don't think that all I'm doing is carousing...."

There really was an alcohol store on the first floor of the building, and the customers made lots of noise. This caused the composer to eventually leave the apartment and move to the Petersburg suburb. The house on Kalēju iela was destroyed in an air raid during World War II, and the wooden house on Aleksandra bulvāris (now Brīvības iela 33) in the Petersburg suburb was demolished in 1911. In all, very little evidence of Wagner remains in Riga. But, although the Aleksandra bulvāris house was soon replaced with a black masonry building, if you look through its main door, you will see a stained glass window from 1913 that has an image of the composer in a beret.

The owner of the new building accepted the fact that Wagner had lived in a house on the same site for one season and had also worked on his opera Rienzi there. Although working as a conductor for the Riga City Theatre turned out to not be as lucrative as he had hoped, nor did he in Riga receive the necessary support for the serious work of composing, Wagner nevertheless began writing his third opera in Riga. Rienzi also marked an important turning point in his life as a

Wagner was working at the Riga City Theatre while composing Rienzi. This theatre was located on Lielā Ķēniņa iela, which is now known as Vāgnera iela in Old Riga. Wagner realised his opera would never be performed in Riga, because the triumphal work -- which premiered in Dresden in 1842 -- was envisioned in the grand style of French operas and required room for large mass scenes and a huge orchestra as well as a ballet.

However, three things about the Riga City Theatre left an impression on Wagner: the auditorium that could be darkened during performances, the amphitheatre-type arrangement of the auditorium, and the slightly lowered orchestra pit. The hall most recently known as Vāgnera zāle (Wagner Hall, on Vāgnera iela) is currently closed to the public. The façade is original, but the interior of the hall has been altered significantly since Wagner's time. Only one room in the building has retained its original appearance.

Any Wagner tour of Riga should include the portrait relief of Wagner made by the sculptor August Foltz, which was the first memorial to the composer in the city. It was erected in the Latvian National Opera in 1887, just four years after Wagner's death. It is located above the 2nd balcony box between the portraits of Beethoven and Shakespeare. On the left side, across from these masters of drama, are the portraits of Mozart, Schiller, and Goethe, three masters of clean, clear, Apollonian art.

In 2001 the sculptor Gļebs Panteļejevs created a sculpture to Wagner, which can be seen at the entrance to the New Hall of the Latvian National Opera. The composer's profile looks almost like the keel of ship, and we may guess that the artist wished show Wagner as a person who steered through life's difficulties with an unstoppable strength.

The musicologist Mikus Čeže has studied Wagner's time in Riga, and he also leads a guided tour organised by the Latvian National Opera called "Wagner -- A Riga Legend" to places throughout Riga where the composer lived, worked and visited.

Tours are conducted in Latvian and German.
Tickets: € 20.00
Minimum group size: 10
Individual tours (for groups with less than ten people): € 200.00
Duration: 90 minutes
Register by calling (+371) 6707 3820 or by sending an e-mail to education@opera.lv

 

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