After a two-year break, on 2 July, the Rundāle Palace Museum invites visitors to the traditional Garden Festival during the rose blossom season. Throughout the day, there will be games, workshops and concerts for children, as well as crafts, independent makers and plants market. This year, the Garden Festival is dedicated to the theme of the reconstruction of the palace garden, and visitors will have the opportunity to learn and appreciate how the restoration of the palace’s Baroque garden was carried out. The highlight of the evening will be the operetta or song play “Love in the Countryside” by Johann Adam Hiller, bandmaster to the Duke of Courland.
Children will be entertained by a series of concert performances “Songs of Uku and Lele”, an orienteering game and workshops, as well as tricks by illusionist Edžus Kauķis and performances by the children’s vocal group “Pigoriņi”. Adults will enjoy perusing the market, where around 100 traders will be offering their wares – summer flowers, herbs and rose plants, homemade wine, home-baked bread and other delicacies, as well as crafts of all kinds.
During the day, visitors will have the opportunity to learn more about the historical reconstruction of the Baroque garden of Rundāle Palace and to see the garden plan and the oldest images of the garden drawn up by Francesco Rastrelli, the architect of Rundāle Palace and the garden, as well as to trace the stages of the restoration of the garden. A presentation on the subject will be held in the Green Theatre and there will be themed tours of the garden throughout the day.
Visitors to the Garden Festival can effortlessly travel to Rundāle Palace by direct bus from Riga, twice a day at 9.20 and 12.20, and back from Rundāle Palace towards Riga at 14.05 and 17.10.
The evening event of the Garden Festival will include a performance of the operetta or song-play “Love in the Countryside” by Johann Adam Hiller, bandmaster to the Duke Peter of Courland, staged by the early music interpreter Māris Kupčs with the participation of the Baroque orchestra “Collegium Musicum Riga”.
Cultural historian Andrejs Johansons highlights Duke Peter’s passion for theatre. In the 1860s, Duke Peter regenerated the court theatre in Jelgava, whose repertoire was particularly popular for song plays – musical performances in which simple songs were interspersed with entertaining dialogues. Most of the performers and singers at the court theatre were without professional training, often “gifted dilettantes”, writes Johansons in his History of the Culture of Latvia 1710–1800. Duke Peter’s court performances were also regularly attended by his intended Dorothea von Medem, who charmed the Duke and later became the Duchess of Courland.
In the spirit of Duke Peter’s time, the Rundāle Palace Museum also invites guests to enjoy a social evening in the special atmosphere of the palace garden, listening to the comical song-play of Johann Adam Hiller. The play tells a story of the love affairs of commoners and noblemen, resolved by the wisdom of the peasants and the justice of the Count. After the performance, guests to the Garden Festival will enjoy a reconstruction of the historical fireworks display.
In the 18th century, relaxing in the gardens was an integral part of life, accompanied by fireworks displays to match the occasion. To distinguish festive fireworks from the military world, the French mathematician and military engineer Amédée-François Frézier called them ‘fires of joy’. The Garden Festival fireworks will consist of static and rotating figures centred on the Museum’s anniversary number 50.
To avoid the hassle and save queuing time, tickets for the Garden Festival can be purchased in advance on the Garden Festival section of the Museum’s website.