Latvia mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča has released her latest solo album entitled Romantique (Deutsche Grammophon, 479 0071), containing arias by Romantic era composers.

Backed by the Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, conducted by Yves Abel, the CD features Garanča performing the works of Donizetti, Tchaikovsky, Gounod, among others. The collection features both well-known works as well as less frequently heard arias.

Garanča has become one of the best known Latvian opera singers, and has performed in Frankfurt, Vienna, London, and, in perhaps her most famous performance, the title role in Bizet’s Carmen at the New York Metropolitan Opera House, also available on DVD from Deutsche Grammophon.

The CD booklet contains an essay about Garanča and the chosen works by Manuel Brug (in English, German and French), as well as all the aria texts with translations.

The CD is currently available to purchase in Germany and Latvia, and will be available in the UK in early October, and in the United States in late October.

For more information on Garanča, visit her website at www.elinagaranca.com, and for more information on this CD release, visit www.deutschegrammophon.com/garanca-romantique.

Track listing:

1. Oh! Mon Fernand – La Favorite – Gaetano Donizetti
2. “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” – Samson et Dalila – Camille Saint-Saëns
3. Farewell you native hills and fields – The Maid of Orléans – Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
4. O ma lyre immortelle – Sapho – Charles Gounod
5. “Faites-lui mes aveux” – Faust – Charles Gounod
6. Giulietta! oh! mia Giulietta! – Ah! se tu dormi – Giulietta e Romeo – Nicola Vaccai
7. “D’amour l’ardente flamme” – La Damnation de Faust – Hector Berlioz
8. “De tous cotés – Lorsque je t’ai vu soudain” – Le Roi d’Ys – Edouard Lalo
9. Plus grand, dans son obscurité – La Reine de Saba – Charles Gounod

The Rīga Cathedral Girls’ Choir, conducted by Aira Birziņa, has released their latest CD, Jubilatio, a collection of sacred choral performances. Covering works from a span of almost six centuries, Jubilatio was recorded at the Rīga Cathedral in 2011 and 2012.

The collection also features distinguished organist Vita Kalnciema, playing the legendary organ of the Rīga Cathedral, who performs in a number of the works, and also has a solo performance with “Toccata alla Fantasia” by Pauls Dambis.

The Choir was founded in 1997, and has about 90 singers, from the ages of nine to nineteen. Birziņa has been the conductor since 2000.

Previous releases by the Choir include Gribas drusku pablēņoties (DVD and CD), as well as Kas kaitēja nedzīvoti (2004) and Te Deum (by Rihards Dubra, 2006).

For more information on the Rīga Cathedral Girls’ Choir, please visit their website at www.girlschoir.lv

Track listing:
1. “Hebe deine Augen auf” from the oratorio “Elija”, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartoldi
2. “Sound the Trumpet” from the ode “Come, ye Sons of Art” – Henry Purcell
3. Ave Regina caelorum – Guillaume Du Fay
4. Ecce Maria – Michael Praetorius
5. Laudate Dominum – Rihards Dubra
6. The Lord Bless You and Keep You – John Rutter
7. Laudamus in Domine – Ieva Alenčika and Austriņa
8. Salve Regina – Miklós Kocsár
9. Miserere – Eva Ugalde
10. Gloria – Michael Bojesen
11. Exsultate Deo – Vytautas Miškinis
12. Toccata alla Fantasia – Pauls Dambis
13. O salutaris hostia – Ēriks Ešenvalds
14. Missa de Spiritu Sancto I Kyrie / II Gloria / III Sanctus / IV Agnus Dei – Rihards Dubra

The Latvian parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee recently struck down a recommendation that would include citizens of Australia and Brazil as among those who could qualify for dual citizenship under proposed amendments to the country’s Citizenship Law.

However, that does not mean the thousands of Latvians who live there are out of luck, say two members of parliament working on the amendments.

As it debated the amendments before moving the legislation (Nr. 52/Lp11) on to a second reading in the Saeima, the Legal Affairs Committee (Juridiskā komisija) rejected the recommendation made by the National Alliance (Nacionālā apvienība “Visu Latvijai! – Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK”).

Australia is home to about 20,000 people who claim Latvian ancestry, according to census data. The vast majority are exiles who came to the country after World War II, and their descendants. In Brazil, hundreds if not thousands more are descended from exiles or from migrations that occurred in the early 20th and late 19th centuries.

They, too, would be able to receive dual citizenship under the proposed revisions to the law, say Latvian MPs Ilmārs Latkovskis and Dzintars Rasnačs. Both men are members of the National Alliance and serve on the Citizenship Law Amendments Subcommittee (Pilsonības likuma grozījumu apakškomisija).

According to changes proposed to the Citizenship Law, Latvians in Australia, Brazil and other countries need not worry about the possibility of receiving dual citizenship, Latkovskis told Latvians Online in a Sept. 4 email.

“The amendments foresee that Latvians may receive dual citizenship regardless of the country where they live,” he wrote.

Under the proposed amendments, dual citizenship would be allowed regardless of ethnicity for citizens of countries that are members of the European Union, the European Free Trade Association or the NATO defense alliance. “This circle does not include Australia, Brazil, Venezuela, Russia and a few other countries notable for their Latvian populations,” Latkovskis wrote.

However, the amendments also would allow ethnic Latvians to obtain dual citizenship regardless of where they live and when their ancestors left the homeland, he wrote. This would apply to those who left Latvia and their descendants down to the fourth generation.

Rasnačs, meanwhile, clarified that the legislation would still face a third reading, so the question of whether Australia, Brazil and other countries are to be specifically included may not be settled.

“Our recommendation was rejected because representatives of these countries could obtain dual citizenship through the ‘exile’ paragraph and the ‘Latvians and Livonians’ paragraph,” he wrote in a Sept. 4 email. Exiles and their descendants, regardless of where they live, could reclaim their Latvian citizenship without giving up citizenship in their host country, according to the proposed amendments. Ethnic Latvians and Livonians could also obtain dual citizenship if they could prove their ancestors lived on Latvian soil between 1881 and June 17, 1940, the date when the first Soviet occupation began.

Dual citizenship also would be allowed for citizens of countries with which Latvia has treaties recognizing dual citizenship, according to the proposed amendments. However, at present no such treaties exist, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Jānis Sīlis.