European Christmas. Vestards Šimkus in a concert performance “Novecento”

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Alessandro Baricco (b 1958) is a world-renowned author and philosopher from Italy who studies glass castles, silk and Homer.  As a young man, he thought a lot about music and even wrote books about the topic.

Baricco is erudite, rather provocative and even a bit quarrelsome.  He loves tangled ideas and always tries to purify the objects that he is considering from trivial assumptions.  Director Dmitrijs Petrenko invites audiences to attend a performance of the Alessandro Baricco long-form monologue, Novecento, or 1900.  The director hopes that the performance will lead audience members to look into themselves.  The performance is based on a book of the same title, telling the story of an unusual musician who grows up on a ship and has never stood on dry land.  He plays the piano in a manner that no one has done before.  People from all around the world want to hear this genius, but to do so, they have to travel across the ocean.  The pianist will be played by the outstanding pianist Vestards Šimkus, and the story will be narrated by Latvian National Theatre actor Kristaps Ķeselis.

Musicians:

Vestards Šimkus, piano
Kristaps Ķeselis, storyteller
Director Dmitrijs Petrenko

Programme:

* Based on a story by Alessandro Baricco