It is often difficult to find the time, between meetings, to stroll around a foreign city, exploring its places of beauty and culture. Last Friday, one of those rare moments surged thanks to the efficient and friendly organisation of the Latvian colleagues.
Within walking distance from the exquisite Art Nouveau buildings of the Russian architect Mikhail Eisenstein (father of the not less famous cineaste Sergei Eisenstein), in Alberta iela and Elizabetes iela – and passing the Museum of Art, the splendorous Orthodox Cathedral and, finally, the Freedom Monument - is to be found the Latvian National Opera House.
Within walking distance from the exquisite Art Nouveau buildings of the Russian architect Mikhail Eisenstein (father of the not less famous cineaste Sergei Eisenstein), in Alberta iela and Elizabetes iela – and passing the Museum of Art, the splendorous Orthodox Cathedral and, finally, the Freedom Monument - is to be found the Latvian National Opera House.
Photo: Eisenstein’s work at Strelnieku IelaThis building was first opened in 1863, reconstructed (after a fire) in 1887 and modernized in 1995, following a project by Imants Jakobsons and Juris Gertmanis.
Photo: Latvian National Opera House
There, we assisted to Verdi’s Nabucco[1]. It was a wonderful performance, in particular by the excellent maestro Normunds Vaicis, which filled with enthusiasm the around 900 Opera loving persons attending the event.
While Nabucco was chanting freedom on stage, some spirits were still remembering that, not many years ago, Nabucco had been prohibited in some parts of Europe.
In the exact same night, Georgios Kyriakos Panayiorou (a.k.a. George Michael) shouted loud the F word – Freedom - ending up with that song his first concert in Portugal, because “freedom is the most important thing in the world". Indeed it is.
