19:30, Steigenberger Grandhotel and SPA, Heringsdorf Seaside Resort

From August 1837 to July 1839 Richard Wagner was chief conductor of the theater in Riga. Here he began work on his opera “Rienzi”. The sea voyage from Riga to Norway in 1839 inspired his “Flying Dutchman”. What did Riga mean to Wagner? What does Wagner mean for Riga? Katharina Wagner, the composer’s great-granddaughter and director of the Bayreuth Festival, Egils Siliņš, world-class Wagner singer and artistic director of the Latvian National Opera in Riga, Josef Oehrlein, who as a journalist for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung documented the renovation of the Wagner Hall in Riga, talk about this with Jan Brachmann, the dramaturge of the Usedom Music Festival.