Siberia does not look like an opera stage, yet it was there, in Chernogorsk, that Andrejs Žagars was born on 16 October 1958 – a Latvian actor, director and later director of the Latvian National Opera. His mother, Vija Žagare, had been deported to Siberia, but after the family returned to Latvia, Žagars grew up in Cēsis. In 1996 he took over the Opera, staged more than twenty-five operas in Latvia and abroad, and helped Riga’s white opera house regain an international voice.

Žagars’s generation in Latvian culture had to rebuild professional ties after Soviet-era isolation. Under his leadership, the Latvian National Opera became a place where young singers and conductors developed before their names began to resonate beyond Latvia.