The fourth summer festival of opera and ballet "LNOBT Open" will be hosted in the Grand Courtyard of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania until 2 July. Two rarely performed operas, a concert by Monika Liu with the LNOBT Symphony Orchestra and a tour of the legendary dance company Béjart Ballet Lausanne – these are the stunning performances that will not be seen again.
Over the course of four years, the "LNOBT Open" festival has become a decoration of the capital's musical life and enriched the cultural experiences of Vilnius residents.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Those who visit the festival will experience many beautiful emotions and will remember the time spent under the summer night sky for a very long time," – said Audrius Kundrotas, interim general manager of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre.
The permanent partner of the “LNOBT Open” festival is the Museum of the Palace of the Grand Dukes. "I want to celebrate the fruitful cooperation between the two national cultural institutions. Of course, it has been happening much longer than the four years marked by this festival, but “LNOBT Open” is like the crown of our collaboration. The Palace of the Grand Dukes is the best place for such an event, because the ballet and opera genres in Lithuania were born exactly here: the origins of ballet date back to the sixteenth century, and the beginning of opera – the beginning of the seventeenth century," – reminded General Manager of the Palace of the Grand Dukes Vydas Dolinskas.
Baroque Opera in a Baroque City
This year's festival opens with Henry Purcell's emotional baroque opera “Dido and Aeneas”. Its director and choreographer Dóra Barta is happy to present it in the baroque city of Vilnius.
"The main idea of the production I’ve created was to look for modern meanings in the old history. They turned out to be easiest to find in Dido’s image, which contains both love and loss. Dancers will help reveal Dido’s thoughts on stage, because dance has the power to express what cannot be conveyed with operatic words," – says the guest from Hungary.
Before the performances of "Dido and Aeneas", the festival attendees (and not only them) are invited to a two-hour tour of the musical Vilnius "Vilnius and Europe: Musical Discoveries", which will take place on both evenings of the premiere (26 and 27 June) at 6:30 p.m. and begin at the main entrance of LNOBT.
Double Debut for Edgaras Montvidas
Edgaras Montvidas, who shall sing one of the main characters on 28 June in the concert performance of Jules Massenet's opera "Thérèse”, is also the artistic director of the Pažaislis Music Festival. Both festivals cooperate in presenting rarely performed operas to Lithuanians.
"Thérèse" is one such opera, which in recent years, as far as I know, has only been performed at the Montpellier Festival in France and the Scottish National Opera in Glasgow. In this latter city, the main part of Thérèse was sung by the Lithuanian mezzo-soprano Justina Gringytė. It was her idea to introduce this opera to the Lithuanian audience. I would call J. Massenet the French Puccini. Previously, I had to sing in his operas "Werther" and "Manon", and I will sing Armand in "Thérèse" for the first time, so it will also be my debut at the "LNOBT Open" festival", – says E. Montvidas.
Why did "Thérèse" suffer the fate of a rarely performed opera? LNOBT’s chief conductor Ričardas Šumila believes that the length of the work itself had an influence on it: "The one-hour piece of music is very suitable for summer festivals, but in order to show it in the repertoire of theatres, it would be necessary to add another piece of similar length next to it. I would also like to emphasize that the action of "Thérèse" takes place in a palace, so the courtyard of the Palace of the Grand Dukes should help the audience to get into the opera's plot", – says the conductor.
Monika Liu's Call to Her Fans
R. Šumila will also conduct the LNOBT symphony orchestra on 29 June during the upcoming concert of the popular singer Monika Liu. "We wanted to have an event at the “LNOBT Open” festival that would go beyond its usual framework and break stereotypes. Let's remember that legends of our opera, such as Virgilijus Noreika or Eduardas Kaniava, were not afraid of experiments: they sang both in opera houses and on the popular stage. And Monika has always fascinated me as an artist who controls her voice no worse than opera soloists," – says R. Šumila.
Monika Liu herself revealed that classical music has been close to her since childhood. "I secretly dreamed of studying opera singing, and in this program I have the opportunity to "play" a singer of this style, because the concert program is very diverse, and I can try different characters in it. I would invite all my fans to come not only to my concert, but to visit all events of the festival", – emphasized Monika Liu.
Museum of Dance: Béjart Ballet Lausanne
Having just presented the impressive premiere of "Le parc", the LNOBT ballet company will not be participating in the festival this year. However, dance fans will have an opportunity to see a performance brought to Lithuania by the famous Swiss dance company Béjart Ballet Lausanne on 1 and 2 July.
"Its tour here at the Palace Museum make sense because this company, like real dance museologist, carefully nurtures the choreographic legacy of its founder, Maurice Béjart, to this day. In Vilnius, we will be able to see two performances by M. Béjart himself: "Bolero", which has become the company’s business card, and the recently recreated "7 Greek Dances", as well as the ballet "Let There be Dance" by Gilis Roman, the company’s long-time soloist and later its artistic director. The speed of ticket sales showed that Lithuanians know and remember well the Swiss company that visited Vilnius before. In its performances, we hope to see several former artists of our ballet company on stage", – said Martynas Rimeikis, artistic director of LNOBT’s ballet.
