Haydn. The Creation. South Kurzeme Festival RIMBENIEKS

Featuring:

• Jolanta Strikaite (soprano)
• Mārtiņš Zvīgulis (tenor)
• Rihards Mačanovskis (baritone)
• Choir Kamēr…
• Liepāja Symphony Orchestra

Conductor: Jurģis Cābulis

Programme:

• Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) The Creation (oratorio)

The site where once stood a Livonian Order castle will become the stage for a miracle of creation. As a grand finale to the Rimbenieks festival, Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Creation— a cornerstone of Western musical heritage—will resound at the Grobiņa Castle Ruins Open-Air Stage. In this masterpiece, music becomes light born from chaos.

Inspired by the biblical story of the world’s creation—from primordial chaos to Adam and Eve—and by John Milton’s Paradise Lost, this work is both a theological message and a human expression of awe at the beauty of the world. One can hear the rumble of darkness, the first light of morning, birdsong, and the waves of the sea. Haydn creates the world not with words, but with sound.

The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, the choir Kamēr…, and soloists Jolanta Strikaite, Mārtiņš Zvīgulis, and Rihards Mačanovskis, under the direction of conductor Jurģis Cābulis, will allow the audience to experience this moment of creation as a living event—among ruins, under the sky, and through music.

The South Kurzeme Festival “Rimbenieks” is implemented within the framework of the “Liepāja 2027” programme, with funding provided by the Ministry of Culture, the State City of Liepāja, and the municipalities of South Kurzeme and Kuldīga. The festival is supported by LSEZ Terrabalt SIA.