Latvian National Opera in Riga, Lativa

Latvian National Opera  ccopyright TripAdvisor

The Latvian National Opera House is home to both the Latvian National Opera and the Latvian National Ballet. In the course of a season that runs from September to June the LNO puts up more than 200 performances, staging on average six new opera and ballet productions every season. Today, the LNO is a repertoire theatre.



While paying tribute to the traditional values of the Classical and Romantic operas and ballets that are the cornerstones of its repertoire, the LNO is ceaselessly in search of new forms of contemporary expression. Under the leadership of General Director Andrejs Žagars, the LNO boasts many successful productions of Baroque operas, modern opera and ballet masterpieces, children’s performances, and original Latvian works. The LNO is turned towards the international world: the company has an active touring schedule with many outstanding guest singers, conductors, choreographers and directors. Recently, the LNO has been touring around the world, from the Hong Kong Festival to the Bordeaux Opera, by way of the Catania Opera, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Luxembourg Opera, the Dalhalla Festival in Sweden and Mexico. The LNO is a stage where many talents were born. Popular soloists like Elīna Garanča, Kristine Opolais, Marina Rebeka, Maija Kovaļevska, Inese Galante, Aleksandrs Antoņenko or Egils Silins, all started their careers at the LNO.



The LNO Company was founded soon after independence was declared on the 18th of November, 1918, and in the 1920s the opera company was joined by the first professional Latvian ballet ensemble. The LNO occupies a stately neo-classical style building in Riga, originally constructed as the Riga German Theatre in 1863.