All events

Ivan Mazeppa - the Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks, Vasily Kochubey - the extremely wealthy Ukrainian nobleman, and his daughter, Mariya, find themselves amid reckless love, lust for power, political intrigue, bloody crime and cruel punishment.

The setting of the ballet is Riga in the late nineteenth century. The atmosphere of the day is conjured up by the city's ancient streets, Art Nouveau interiors, plant motifs, and effective contrasts: it's winter outside, but inside, flowers are blooming. Christmas-tree decorations and toys come to life, and Maria's dreams begin to come true. Everything happens exactly as befits Christmas Eve, though the tone is set by the rules and forms of classical ballet.

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a fairytale-like rock ballet for parents and children alike. It is a joint project by the Riga Choreography School, the Emils Darzins' Music School and the Latvian National Opera.

Swan Lake is the ballet's ballet, and has always been an audience-favorite. This production combines the beautiful music of Tchaikovsky with the ingenious choreography of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. The enchantment of Swan Lake attracts Prince Siegfried, a dreamer, like a magnet. Odile, looking exactly like the beautiful swan princess Odette, lusts for the young prince. A struggle; the injury of beloved Odette; the victory over evil, which is only an illusion... This interpretation of Swan Lake by the LNO ballet troupe has fascinated audiences with its meticulous re-creation of every detail of the classic ballet - the choreography of the dances, the language of movement, the relationships between characters, and the decorations and costumes.

Russian composer and leading 20th-century musicologist Boris Asafiev’s ballet The Fountain of the Bakhchisaray is a poetic story of love’s various "faces": passion, jealousy, cruelty, and tenderness. Maria, the daughter of a Polish magnate, inflames the heart of the Crimean Khan Girei, who kidnaps Maria and takes her back to his harem. Here, Maria is thrown into the midst of a psychological war; in a fit of rage and jealousy, Girei’s wife, Zarem, attacks and kills the Polish girl. Khan Girei tries to soothe his pain by gazing into the Fountain of Tears, whose bubbling water brings him back to his past, and his feelings once again come to life…

Gioachino Rossini's popular opera buff "The Barber of Seville" directed by the young Latvian film director Aik Karapetian is a defiant dark comedy.

This revival of Madama Butterfly offers the unique opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the LNO's original 1925 production: the original set and costume design, as well as the basic structure of the direction, have been preserved. The production's historical aspect is unique on a global scale: the performance is one of the oldest preserved opera productions in the world. The opera tells the story of a Japanese girl's impossible love for an American navy lieutenant. Her love is as tragic and beautiful as the flight of a butterfly at dusk, when the light warms, dazzles, and burns.

Giselle is one of the first large ballets of the romantic period, and one of the few works of that era to have survived to the present day. An idyllic country village is the setting for a naïve girl's first love and her eventual betrayal, which is followed by madness and death. After she dies, Giselle enters a painfully beautiful world populated by lovely wilis, the souls of dead virgins who, at night, make men dance to their deaths. But in the end, the power of love overcomes even death.

One of the masterpieces of opera history. For more than one hundred and twenty years, the love story of an Ethiopian princess and an Egyptian military commander has been reborn, time and again, in opera theatres all over the world. The LNO production, designed by the outstanding Latvian artist Ilmārs Blumbergs, resembles a giant abstract painting, the colors and shapes of which evoke the majesty of Ancient Egypt.

Opera in 3 acts by Giuseppe Verdi. In Italian with surtitles in Latvian and in English. Summer Performances

Due to its touching, inspiring story and wonderful melodies, "La Bohème" has become one of the most frequently performed operas all around the world. The popular opera returns to the stage of the Latvian National Opera after several years of absence.

Princes and princesses, fairies and other heroes from fairy tales come together at Tchaikovsky's ballet featuring wonderful music and memorable story about love that overcomes all difficulties.

An event for the whole family. An exciting meeting with favorite fairytale heroes from Latvian composer Jānis Lūsēns and poetess Māra Zālīte's "The Puppet Opera". The characters will sing and live the plot of the opera, as well as tell all about opera, the pit orchestra, stage properties, sets, various operatic voices and other interesting things.

New production of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the Latvian National Opera. Directed by Andrejs Žagars, managing director at LNO, set design - Katrīna Neiburga, costume design - Mare Mastiņa and Rolands Pēterkops; the cast - internationally-known opera soloists Egils Siliņš and Kristīne Opolais, as well as others.

The popularity of this ballet has come about thanks to its unique choreography.

Georges Bizet's opera in 4 acts with two intermissions. In French with surtitles in Latvian and English. Summer performances.

This season the Latvian National Opera is presenting a new ballet production "4 Worlds, 4 Elements" lifting the curtain to the enormous and versatile world of emotions, to bright and real colours reflecting the heroes' sufferings, along with the newly-produced operas "War Sum Up" and "Gotterdämmerung"

This autumn, a new production-ballet of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is on the repertory of the Latvian National Opera. The opening night will be October 22nd. The mythical love story is choreographed by Youri Vàmos. Music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Cast - Latvian leading ballet artists, among them Raimonds Martinovs and Margarita Demjanoka. This will be one of Latvian National Opera's most spendid productions this season.

The insatiable bon vivant Don Giovanni, for whom only a woman's beauty is sacred, loves merciless games. He'll abandon a lady without qualms, seduce a bride away from her own wedding, even kill - for him, nothing seems forbidden. The Commendatore, the father of Donna Anna, dies in a duel, and Don Giovanni invites statue on the Commendatore's grave to a dinner. But before the shocking conclusion, the opera also introduces the gentle, lovely Zerlina, the servant Leporello and his legendary catalogue of Don Giovanni's 2,000 lovers, the mysterious Donna Elvira, the vengeful Donna Anna, and, above all, the ingenious music of Mozart.

This production by Alexei Ratmansky about idyllic life on a Soviet kolkhoz is a masterwork of refined humour, built with sniper-like directorial precision.

Where is the brave soul who will guess the three riddles of the beautiful but icy Chinese princess Turandot? Will he ever appear, though he stands the risk of losing everything if he answers incorrectly? Of course, a hero always appears in the end. In this story he is mysterious Prince Calaf, who arrives in Peking ready to accept Turandot's challenge.

Léo Delibes's Coppélia, which is once again returning to the LNO's stage, is a classic reading of the E.T.A.Hoffmann's story The Sandman. The revival of the production - where our troupe's best soloists will perform the story of the young heartbreaker Franz and his beloved, Svanilde - will be comical, colorful, and full of life. The characters enter a whirlwind of misunderstandings when Svanilde's beauty is overshadowed by the magic of the mysterious Doctor Coppélius's daughter, Coppélia.

Children enter the Opera through the main doors; open the door to the large hall; sit down in the velvet chairs; and watch as the lights dim, the glow of the chandelier looking like the starry sky. The conductor raises his baton and the performance begins, telling the story of the kindhearted Doctor Doolittle, his resourceful animal friends, and the evil Mr.Dornton.

Ludwig Minkus’s ballet “La Bayadère”, with Marius Petipa’s choreography, will be performed on the stage of the Latvian National Opera for the first time ever.

The Latvian National Opera (LNO) rounds off the ambitious project of staging Richard Wagner's epic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen with the premiere of his Twilight of the Gods. The entire cycle will be presented in 2013, celebrating Wagner's 200th anniversary.

The popular musical interpretation of Walter Scott’s historical novel “The Bride of Lammermoor” returns to the Latvian National Opera.

Debut of Latvian composer Bruno Skulte's opera "The Heiress of Vilkači" at the Latvian National Opera is a unique happening in Latvian culture. The fate of the opera was harsh - it was composed in 1947 and staged in Latvia only once - as a concert-production. On June 3, 2011, "The Heiress of Vilkači" will finally premiere at the Latvian National Opera.

In collaboration with the Hotel Pro Forma (Denmark) and Latvian Radio Choir, manga opera War Sum Up will premiere at the Latvian National Opera.

During the summer season, the Latvian National Opera offers a special two-week series of performances.