The performance has been staged in association with the Boris and Inara Teterevs Fund and the guest tours will be held with the support of Rietumu Bank.
According to the Director of the Riga Russian Theatre Eduard Tsekhoval, “We are well aware that it is a huge responsibility to bring “Khanuma” to the city where the famous performance by Georgy Tovstonogov was created. We are ready to it. And we hope that neither recollections about the performance of the Bolshoi Drama Theatre, nor impressions from the popular TV version will prevent the spectators from deriving real pleasure from our performance.”
“The current guest tours are also very important for the Riga Russian Theatre because Saint Petersburg has historically played a huge role in the establishment of Latvian culture, becoming the cradle of the country’s professional arts,” noted the Member of the Council of Rietumu Bank Alexander Gafin. “For a number of years our bank has been supporting big and significant projects in the field of cultural exchange between Latvia and Russia, including guest tours of Latvian theatres in Russia and the presentation of the best Russian performances on the Latvian stage. Every time these projects enjoyed big and well-deserved success; I am sure that this time it will also be the same!”
The Riga Russian Theatre is one of the oldest Russian theatres beyond the borders of Russia and one of the few Russian theatres in the EU countries. In 2013 the theatre celebrated its 130th jubilee. Throughout its entire history the theatre has been playing one of the leading roles in the cultural life of Riga. The theatre bears the name of the great actor and director Mikhail Chekhov, who played on the Riga stage for two seasons in the 1930s.
The current guest tours to Saint Petersburg are not the first ones. Recently the Riga Russian Theatre brought the programme “Two Legendary Composers of Latvia” to Saint Petersburg, which consisted of two performances – “Odessa, the City of Magic…” to music by R. Pauls and “Tango Between the Lines”, devoted to the life of the ‘King of Tango’ Oskars Stroks. It should be noted that since 2010 the Artistic Director of the M. Chekhov Theatre has been the director from Saint Petersburg Igor Konyaev.
Rietumu Bank is one of the biggest patrons of arts in Latvia. Among the biggest and most noticeable projects in the field of Latvia-Russia cultural links supported by the bank in recent years, are the Moscow guest tours of the Latvian National Opera and the National Theatre, the annual Russian theatrical festival “Golden Mask in Latvia”, the presentation of the “Enchanted Wanderer” opera by Rodion Shchedrin in Riga, the organisation of the exhibition of the Faberge House masters from collections of Moscow museums in Latvia, as well as exhibitions of the famous photographer and politician Janis Krumins “My Latvia” in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
