Interview: Mikhail Baryshnikov on «Letter to a Man»

Take note – story published 7 years ago

From August 3 to August 7 the Latvian National Opera will see guest performances by Riga-born ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov. Latvian Radio's Laima Slava talked to the Rīga-born ballet virtuoso in an interview on the work and life of dance artist Vaslav Nijinsky and Robert Wilson's staging of Nijinsky's diaries in "Letter to a Man".

"We all grew up learning about the legacy of this man.

Of course [he was an] extraordinary legendary dancer and an even more fascinating choreographer, who brought modernism to the dance art form," Baryshnikov says.

Click below to hear the two-part interview on the parallels between Baryshnikov's and Nijinsky's career, his cooperation with Robert Wilson, as well as last year's Brodsky/Baryshnikov play that sparked a veritable theater mania in Rīga. 

Interview with Mikhail Baryshnikov pt. 1
00:00 / 06:10
Lejuplādēt

Interview with Mikhail Baryshnikov pt. 2
00:00 / 04:35
Lejuplādēt

"Letter to a Man" is a collaboration between Baryshnikov and American avant-garde playwright Robert Wilson. It is based on Nijinsky's 1919 diaries documenting the young man’s descent into madness.

Nijinsky died in 1950 after spending more than 30 years in a mental institution.

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