Opera has fully recovered from Covid-19 pandemic - new director

RIGA - The Latvian National Opera and Ballet (LNOB) has fully recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, Sandis Voldins, the new LNOB director, said in an interview with TV3 channel on Friday. 

The LNOB is currently in a very stable financial situation. While last year ticket sales reached EUR 3 million, this year, the figure was reached in the first half of the year. "We have a base that we have been building very patiently, and this is a financial springboard on which we can build something in the next five years," said Voldins.

The LNOB has fully recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic. "It has not only recovered, it has surpassed all previous periods," the new director revealed. 

Voldins indicated that so far it has been possible to raise the remuneration for the LNOB artistic staff. "When I joined the LNOB in 2019, wages were extremely low. For the last five years we have been struggling to raise them to a more or less decent level. What we did last year, by massively reaching out to the media and politicians, has also resulted in an increase in musicians' pay," Voldins said.

In practice, this is evident in the number of people entering competitions. It was "extremely important" for the opera to prevent musicians from leaving even to nearby Estonia and Lithuania, where a number of Latvians work because there they can earn higher salaries. "The outflow has been stopped," concluded Voldins, admitting though that the issue of remuneration can never be fully resolved.

Voldins will take over the helm of the LNOB on November 4, 2024, when the office term of current LNOB director Egils Silins expires.