TOUCHED BY ETERNITY | A patriotic musical mystery, a story about the War of Independence

This year marks the 125th anniversary of poet Aleksandrs Čaks.

To honor this occasion, on November 12 at 11:00 and 14:00 in the LNB Ziedonis Hall, the musical performance created by Mārtiņš Vilsons and Jānis Lūsēns, “The Story of the War of Independence - Eternity’s Touched,” will be introduced by a presentation from the director of the Aleksandrs Čaks Memorial Apartment-Museum, Ph.D. Antra Medne - “Aleksandrs Čaks’ poetry cycle ‘Eternity’s Touched,’ which is included in the Latvian Cultural Canon, might never have existed.”

Included in the Latvian School Bag program.

“ETERNITY’S TOUCHED” A patriotic musical mystery, a story about the War of Independence.

Authors: Aleksandrs Čaks, Jānis Lūsēns, Mārtiņš Vilsons.

The script is based on Aleksandrs Čaks’ poetry cycle “Eternity’s Touched.”

Actor Mārtiņš Vilsons, composer Jānis Lūsēns, and musician Evija Mundeciema-Lūsēna have clothed Čaks’ texts in a powerful, patriotic, emotional, and artistically sensitive language that allows the audience to experience and understand the heroism of the Latvian Riflemen and the high price of creating an independent state, which they paid also for our freedom and prosperity.

A work valued differently in different times is one of the most important and artistically outstanding. It is important to remind people of it using every means of artistic expression, making it understandable to people of different ages, nationalities, and religious affiliations. Moving forward and outlining a vision of the future, we must learn about the past so that, through noble and self-sacrificing examples from the heroes of our nation, we can understand the order of things and give ourselves the opportunity to grow.

One of the guiding themes in A. Čaks’ work was personal freedom, which was expressed most strongly in the poetry cycle “Eternity’s Touched,” where the Riflemen’s figures are portrayed as the embodiment of civic and state freedom.

The fate of the work was as complicated as Čaks’ life - from universal recognition to rejection by the state political leadership and by Čaks himself. The cycle began in 1930 with the publication of the poem “The Return of the Riflemen” and immediate reader acclaim. Later, while Čaks was working in the editorial office of the publications of the Latvian Old Riflemen’s Association and editing the magazine “Latvian Riflemen,” he met and got to know the Riflemen and their stories of battle, from which the poetry cycle “Eternity’s Touched” was created.

Čaks’ poetry cycle “Eternity’s Touched” is one of the cornerstones of Latvian literary classics and is rightfully included in the Latvian Cultural Canon.

“Listen to the rumble of your people,

Their joyful and painful speech,

In their heroes and in death.

Learn to stand with them

Against victory and terror,

And never again, naked and unclean,

Will you be in all eternity.”

The presentation and performance will take place without intermission in one part - total duration 1h 20min

Intended for young people in grades 9-12

Premiere on November 18, 2021, in Riga

Included in the Latvian School Bag program.