On Friday, 13 September, the new season of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, which has been headed by Laima Vilimienė since the beginning of this week, begins with the premiere of the modern ballet "La Strada".
"We will have some very important dedications this season. One of them is the 50th anniversary of the LNOBT Palace: this building opened its doors to spectators for the first time in November 1974. It is symbolic that half a year ago, the newly built Klaipėda State Musical Theatre was revealed in Klaipėda – the first new building dedicated to such purposes in the newly independent Lithuania.
The second important and significant date of this season is the 100th anniversary of composer Giacomo Puccini's death, to which one of the LNOBT premieres "Triptych" is dedicated. This will be the fourth production of G. Puccini's work in the theatre’s current repertoire (after “La Boheme", "Madam Butterfly" and "Turandot"). In total, there will be four premieres during the new season", – revealed the new general manager of LNOBT Laima Vilimienė, who is the first woman in history to lead the largest theatre in Lithuania.
200 Events Per Season
The season was presented in more detail by Audrius Kundrotas, the interim general manager who managed LNOBT for a year and a half, and who has now returned to his previous duties as the head of the LNOBT’s marketing department and deputy general manager.
"During the season, we plan to show around 200 performances, which is really quite a lot. Everyone will be able to find something in the repertoire according to their individual taste. The already mentioned G. Puccini's "Triptych" will be presented on the LNOBT’s stage for the first time in Independent Lithuania. We are very happy indeed to be co-creating the production in cooperation with the New York City Opera. The new production of Wolfgang A. Mozart's popular opera "Don Giovanni" awaits in March. This shall be the impressive vision of the British director John Fulljames, which in 2022 received recognition in Athens and Copenhagen, and in 2023 - in Gothenburg. Ballet lovers will also be able to enjoy two memorable premieres of "La Strada" and "La fille mal gardee", – said A. Kundrotas.
He also invited the audience to the musical project "Jonas Mekas. Requiem", organized by LNOBT together with the Centre for Contemporary Art. This is a screening of Mr. Mekas last film, ‘”Requiem”, for a live performance of Giuseppe Verdi's “Requiem”. And the performance will be truly exceptional: the voices of Viktorija Miškūnaitė, Justina Gringytė, Edgaras Montvidas and Kostas Smoriginas, who make the name of Lithuania famous abroad, will be heard together with the LNOBT choir and orchestra, conducted by the theatre’s chief conductor Ričardas Šumila.
Soon, already on 6 October, the LNOBT baroque music orchestra Cappella Concertante Vilnense, as well as violinist Dimitris Karakantas and countertenor Alois Mühlbacher, will invite the audience to an enchanting concert of Antonio Vivaldi's music.
Martynas Rimeikis, artistic director of LNOBT’s ballet company, spoke in greater detail about the ballet premieres. He was happy that the ballet "La fille mal gardee" by composer Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold is returning to the theatre repertoire after a long break – this time it will be the world-famous version by the British choreographer Frederick Ashton.
Laughter and Tears are Side by Side
Meanwhile, the ballet company's main focus is, of course, set on the season-opening premiere of the ballet “La Strada”.
"I think Marco Goecke is one of the few choreographers today who has a perfectly recognizable signature style that cannot be confused with anyone else’s. And I am not only talking about choreographic text, but also about choreographic thinking. I have been following this artist's work for a long time, so I wanted to present his creation to our audience and our dancers. "La Strada" greatly expanded the understanding of the means of dance expression in our company, one can say that this piece made us grow even more", – the artistic director of ballet M. Rimeikis revealed. He invited the audience to come to the new performance more than once, because the rich layers of meanings encoded in it are difficult to grasp all at once.
Ludovico Pace, one of the choreographer's assistants who helped transfer M. Goecke's work to the Lithuanian stage, says that there are many connections between the ballet "La Strada" and Federico Fellini's film of the same name: the same plot, the same main characters, and there will also be some recognizable movie scenes.
"The main idea of both the film and the ballet is that you cannot bring back the past and correct the mistakes of your life. Of course, everything in this story is very sad, but, as you know, laughter and tears go hand in hand in life. There is light in even the most difficult moments of life, and the main message of the production is simply to just to be better to each other," – revealed L. Pace.
However, the most important link between F. Fellini's film and the ballet is the music of composer Nino Rota. "In fact, when creating this ballet, N. Rota used not only the music created for the film "La strada": in order to be able to maintain coherent choreographic lines, he had to add music from other movies as well. The most important thing is that the whole came out resonant and very memorable. Although sometimes the same musical motifs sound in different episodes of the film and the ballet, everything here is extremely theatrical," – commented Martynas Staškus, the music director and conductor of the production.
Ballet soloists Julija Stankevičiūtė, Julija Šumacherytė, Ernestas Barčaitis and Ignas Armalis will perform the main roles in the premiere performances of "La Strada", which shall grace LNOBT’s stage on 13, 14 and 17-21 September.
