Viestur Kairish


Viestur Kairish is a Latvian opera, film, and theatre director. He has made a successful career in Latvia and Germany as a director of operas, and his films and plays have toured in many European festivals.

Early life and education

Viestur Kairish graduated from the Latvian Academy of Culture as a theatre and film director in 1997.

Career

Stage

Kairish was appointed at the New Riga Theatre as a resident stage director. Since then he has set critically acclaimed plays both in Latvia and abroad. Several of his productions toured international festivals and venues, including the Wiener Festwochen, the Hebbel am Ufer, the Festival d’Avignon, and the Bonner Biennale.
He debuted in opera directing with Peter Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the Latvian National Opera, receiving the Latvian Great Music Award for the Best Opera Production in 1999. Soon after, he staged Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Latvian National Opera in 2001 which later on was transformed into the short-movie artwork for the 42nd Venice Biennale.
He joined Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen project at the Latvian National Opera with Die Walküre in 2007. He set the last three operas from the cycle which received positive reviews in respectable music and opera journals.
The successful work on Wagner's operas opened for Kairish an international career in opera staging. He has been invited to Komische Oper Berlin, Oper Köln and Staatstheater Darmstadt. His debut in Germany, the production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Kristiina Poska conducting, was acknowledged by The Financial Times as a "worthy contribution to a fledgling Britten tradition for Germany" and received many other positive reviews. Work on Weber's Der Freischütz with Markus Stenz conducting at Oper Köln was acclaimed success as well both from the critics and public, same as the production of Verdi's Macbeth with Will Humburg conducting at Staatstheater Darmstadt.
Currently, Kairish is working on Arturs Maskats' new opera Valentina together with Modestas Pitrenas as a conductor at the Latvian National Opera with scheduled shows at Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Films

Kairish has directed four documentaries and six feature films.
He made his debut in 1998 with the documentary The Train. His first feature-length movie Leaving by the Way won National Film Award for the best feature of 2001. It was included in the official competition program at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and received an award for the best debut at the Raindance Film Festival in the United Kingdom.
His fourth documentary Pelican in the Desert was screened in competition at the Visions du Reel in Nyon, France, and received an honourable mention in the Documentary category of the Urania Awards at the Let's CEE Film Festival in Vienna, Austria.
Kairish worked on the Latvian-Finnish co-production Chronicles of Melanie, a historical drama, released in 2015.
He directed the film Janvāris, which received the Lielais Kristaps award for best feature film in 2023.

List of works

Operas

Stage Plays

Filmography

Awards