Starring the historic Latvian literary figures Rainis and Aspazija, celebrating their 150th birthday anniversaries, as portrayed by singer-songwriter Goran Gora and news anchor Eva Strapcāne-Ikstena, the latest episode visits deep-voiced actress Helena Kalinić in Zagreb as she purchases some mimosas in the open market and interprets Aspazija’s 1910 poem “From the tribe of Prometheus”.
Earlier this month the EU2015LV You Tube channel published episodes dedicated to Lithuania and Hungary.
In the Lithuanian episode, conveyed in the style of a silent movie of the age, actor Tadas Gryn and actress Toma Vaškevičiūte portray one of the two-and-a-half-thousand letters exchanged between soul-mates Rainis and Aspazija while he was in prison. Like the Latvian poets, the Lithuanian screen pair are also partners in real life.
The #mindpower series also touched down in February with choir leader Katalin Kiss of the Ars Nova choir. A grammarian and professor at the Kodály Institute of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, she founded the Ars Nova Vocal Ensemble in 1993 and is its conductor and artistic director still. Ars Nova were champions at last year’s Riga World Choir Games, ranked seventh in the world among chamber choirs and vocal ensembles.
Ars Nova performs a unique reading of poems from Aspazija’s “Strewn Roses” and Rainis’ “New Power” collections.
