The 3rd International Operetta Festival will open with the opening concert “I’ll say it again, Rejoice!”, featuring the most beautiful music from the golden fund of Latvian and world classics and gospel music by Kristīne Prauliņa, Riga Gospel Choir, Raimonds Ozols, young voices of the Operetta Theatre and Agija Ozoliņa-Kozlovska.
The main theme of the concert programme is joy, which can spiritually recharge and delight. The concert will be enchanted by the Riga Gospel Choir with Kristine Prauliņa, the young voices of the Operetta Theatre – Rūta Martinova (soprano), Elīna Avotiņa (mezzo-soprano), Dainis Kalnačs (tenor), as well as experienced artists – violinist Raimonds Ozols and pianist Agija Ozoliņa-Kozlovska. The programme includes works by Jānis Mediņš, Emīls Dārziņš, Gilles Massenet, Johann Sebastian Bach and African-American composers.
“Without the great vertical, there would be no horizontal! The opening concert of the Festival must be the very foundation from which everything we build the development of operetta symbolically stems,” says pianist and Chair of the Operetta Theatre Board Agija Ozoliņa-Kozlovska.
Kristīne Prauliņa believes that gospel music is the music of faith, passion and soulful expression: “We with the Riga Gospel Choir enjoy every opportunity to share our stories and love of music through these shades of rhythm and blues, which are still somewhat uncommon in Latvia.”
The Riga Gospel Choir will be joined by the young and talented pianist Domas Žeromskas from Lithuania for the festival’s opening concert. Riga Gospel Choir actively performs both in Latvia and abroad, has won gold medals in 2014. 2017 World Choir Olympiad and 2017 World Choir Games Grand Prix of the Nations competition.
