A young singer, Raimonds, now the owner of an inherited rental house, has set up a club “Pie mežrozīte”. It is popular with the residents of Ilguciems for its good music, and on warm summer evenings the outdoor terrace is a place of fun and passion. A letter arrives from Venice, and opera singer Eva arrives in Riga. Raimonds’ hitherto quiet life takes an unforeseen turn.
A colourful, joyful and positive performance, an exciting musical story about Eva and Raimonds’ longing for love and forgiveness. The libretto by playwright Dace Micānes-Zālīte is based on a woman-artist with life and career challenges and choices.
In keeping with the style of a jukebox musical, this musical includes only Raimonds Pauls’ most popular hits such as “The Lantern Hour”, “Don’t Lie to Me”, “The Little Rose”, “Dark Blue”, “How Silent the Night”, “Undine” and others. The melodies are arranged in a gorgeous Broadway jazz style by the young, talented jazz pianist and improviser Matīss Žilinskis.
Raimonds Pauls and Edīte Pauls Wigneres’ father Voldemārs and grandfather Ādolfs Pauls were glass blowers at the Ilguciems Glass Factory. In the last century. 60. In the 1990s, almost all of the low-rise buildings in Ilguciems were demolished and replaced by Soviet-era apartment blocks. Entire streets disappeared, including the small Nordeķu Street, where Paul’s parents’ house used to be. But the greenery of Nordeki Manor Park still beckons… In the rhythms of Riga’s city, in the motifs of people’s lives, the wild rose blooms.
Patrons – Ieva & Robin Hull (Switzerland). “Raimonds Pauls is Latvia’s most popular and best-known Latvian composer. He is a living legend whose music resounds not only in Riga, but also in the hearts of people from Almaty to Tallinn and from Warsaw to St Petersburg. His melodies, in an age of geopolitical madness, remind us that humanity has common roots and that culture builds bridges of understanding where politics burns them.
