Latvian Songs (Live Recording)

by Egils Silins / Maris Skuja

One of the famed wagnerian bass-baritones of our age, Egils Silins, sings romantic art songs by Latvian composers in recital, accompanied by Maris Skuja.

''It is a poetry of longing, an unsatisfiable longing for tranquillity, home, homeland, something unattainable and unsummonable, a longing for lost happiness and love.''

Emils Darzins

Latvian bass-baritone Egils Silins made his Royal Opera debut in 2011 as the Dutchman (Der fliegende Holl nder). He has since returned to sing Jokanaan (Salome) for The Royal Opera. Silins studied at the Latvian Academy of Music. He has won ten international vocal competitions, has twice received the Latvian Music Award and was awarded the title Singer of the Year in Zagreb in 2010 for his performances as Amfortas (Parsifal). Engagements include Wotan (Das Rheingold) and High Priest of Dagon (Samson et Dalila) for Op ra-Bastille, Escamillo (Carmen), Sebastiano (Tiefland) and Scarpia (Tosca) in Vienna, Amfortas in Barcelona, Eugene Onegin in Riga, Klingsor (Parsifal) in Z rich, Wanderer (Siegfried) in Leipzig and Tokyo, Prince Igor in Z rich and the Dutchman for Deutsche Oper Berlin and in Madrid and Dresden. Silins regularly performs at such opera houses as La Scala, Milan, Metropolitan Opera, New York, Lyric Opera, Chicago, Hamburg State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera, Liceu, Barcelona, Zurich Opera and Vienna State Opera. He has worked with such conductors as Andrew Davis, Colin Davis, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Seiji Ozawa, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Christian Thielemann.