At half past two on Sunday, September 15, 1918, a packed audience gathered in Riga City Second Theatre. Latvju Opera began not with a staged opera, but with an opening symphonic concert conducted by Teodors Reiters. The programme included Alfrēds Kalniņš’s “Song of the Homeland” and “Festive Overture”; the latter received its Riga premiere that day. It was the same building where, two months later, the Republic of Latvia was proclaimed – today’s Latvian National Theatre.

In the autumn of 1918, Riga was still under German military occupation, and Latvian musicians had been gathered back after wartime dispersal. Latvju Opera’s work in this building shortly before the proclamation of the state shows how closely the cultural and political self-confidence of the emerging Latvia developed side by side.