The cultural cooperation that began last year between the leading opera and ballet theatres of the Baltic States will continue this year with mutual guest performances.

On April 7, the Latvian National Opera and Ballet will perform Offenbach’s adventurous, visually captivating and enchanting opera “Les Contes d'Hoffmann” (directed by Aik Karapetian) in Estonia, and on May 5, the romantic ballet “La Esmeralda” created by choreographer Aivars Leimanis, based on Victor Hugo’s famous novel “Notre Dame de Paris”.

On April 24, the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet will present the ballet “Coppélia” to the Estonian audience – this work by Léo Delibes is one of the favorite ballets of Lithuanians, as it laid the foundation for the first professional ballet troupe in Lithuania. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Lithuanian Ballet, the production will feature one of today’s most famous Lithuanian choreographers, Martynas Rimeikis. On April 26, Estonian audiences will be able to enjoy Britten's opera "A Midsummer Night's Dream" performed by Lithuanians, which is considered one of the best interpretations of Shakespeare's play of all time. The director of the work, full of magic and romance, is Gintaras Varnas. NB! The costume designer for the production is Juozas Statkevičius, who has created costumes for, for example, Latvian President Vaira Vyke-Freiberga and Danish Queen Mary.

All opera performances have Estonian and English subtitles.

At the end of April, the Estonian National Opera will give guest performances at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius with the opera "Pelléas and Mélisande" and the ballet "Light at the End of the World".

Photo by Agnese Zeltiņa from the production "The Tales of Hoffmann"