Artists:
Jānis Šipkēvics (Shipsea)
Vilis Daudziņš
Rihards Plešanovs, piano
Soloists of the Latvian Radio Choir
Musical director Sigvards Kļava
Director Pēteris Krilovs
Libretto author Nora Ikstena
Set designer Anna Heinrihsone
Program:
Latvian folk songs and piano miniatures ornamented by Jēkabs Graubiņš
In honor of the outstanding Latvian graphic artist Ansis Cīrulis – master of applied arts, painter and author of the national flag standard, Dzintari Concert Hall invites you to a Musical performance dedicated to the artist.
The key to the choir’s performance is given by the surname of the artist himself – Cīrulis (skylark). The small Latvian bird high in the air, in the sky, with its trills, which are so unforgettable in spring. The skylark – the bird connects the earth with the sky, just like the skylark – the artist. All his life he dreamed of painting, high art, admired Vermeer, but the reality of life drew him to the earth – dishes, furniture, wall decorations. In Ansis Cīrulis, it is as if two personalities are connected – a dreamer and a realist. Therefore, the choir’s performance, which is a little over an hour long, is conceived as melodeclamations by two storytellers – Vilis Daudziņš and Shipsea (Jānis Šipkēvičs), who will tell facts about and around the life and art of Ansis Cīrulis, and then the music chosen by Sigvards Kļava, which complements and rounds off this narration.
Stylistically expressed in the contemporary language of storytellers and in the visual landscape of the artist Anna Heinrihsone, the performance will testify to the Latvian of the 21st century that Cīrulis is an artist who has stood the test of time and deserves to be updated. How much individual Latvianness is left in each of us in times of upheaval and change? How strong is the foundation underfoot? How much space is left for the dreamer of the age, how much has the realist reprimanded it? Maybe it’s time to notice that the earthly band coincides with the heavenly band: in the divine world, everything happens similar to earthly life, just like in the art of Ansis Cīrulis.
Approximate duration: 1 hour 10 minutes
