Alfreds Kalninš - Riga, Latvia - Musician Statues on Waymarking.com

This life-size statue of Alfreds Kalninš was placed in 1979 on his 100th birthday. It was originally placed in front of the Latvian National Opera Hall, but has since been moved a short distance away within the park. The stone statue depicts Kalninš in a coat and slacks. He is sitting and his hands are resting on his knees. He has a mustache and a long goatee. The statue is resting atop a rectangular stone plinth with the following inscription:

ABOUT THE MAN:

"Alfreds Bruno Janis Kalninš (23 August 1879 in Cesis, Governorate of Livonia – 23 December 1951 in Riga, Latvian SSR) was a Latvian composer, organist, pedagogue, music critic and conductor; the founder of national Latvian opera. Kalninš is primarily remembered for his national opera Banuta (1920).

Kalninš was a very prolific composer, who wrote hundreds of songs, both for solo voice with piano accompaniment and for choir. Of his six cantatas the best known is Jura (‘The Sea’).

In 1918 Kalninš started working on his most famous piece of music, the opera Banuta, which went into premiere in 1920 in Riga. It is the first opera with a libretto in Latvian. When Kalninš lived in New York, he rewrote a big part of its music. This version of the opera was performed for the first time in 1937. In 1940, under Soviet rule, Kalninš had to change the end of the opera. In the original version the principal person Banuta and her lover Vižuts commit suicide; now the opera got a happy end. On 5 June 1982 the opera was performed for the first time in the West, namely in New York. This production was based on the 1937 version. The 1940 version has not been performed since. The opera has always remained popular, especially in Latvia, and is still performed from time to time.

Kalninš’s second opera Salinieki (‘The island dwellers’, 1926) is lesser known.

Moreover, he composed a ballet, Staburags, an orchestral suite and pieces for organ and piano."

-- Wikipedia