""Švyturiai"" Awards is one of the most beautiful traditions of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. This year the awards were given out for the 12th time in a row, acknowledging best opera and ballet soloists of the year who created memorable roles on the stage of LNOBT. ""Švyturiai"" Awards were bestowed to the following soloists:
– Tadas Girininkas: Opera Soloist of the Year – for the role of Heinrich der Vogler in Richard Wagner’s opera ""Lohengrin"" (conductor Robertas Šervenikas, director Andrejs Žagars) and the role Don Ruy Gomez de Silva in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Ernani” (conductor Gianluca Marciano, director Jean-Claude Berutti)
– Marius Miliauskas: Ballet Soloist of the Year – for the role of Čiurlionis in ballet “Čiurlionis” (choreographer Robert Bondara, composer Giedrius Kuprevičius) and the role of King Marke in ""Tristan and Isolde"" (choreographer Krzysztof Pastor)
– Rūta Juodzevičiūtė: Best Ballet Soloist for Supporting Roles – for Marija in “Čiurlionis” and Micaëla in ballet ""Carmen"" (choreography by Didy Veldman).
The Opera and Ballet ""Švyturiai"" Awards were established by the ""Švyturys - Utenos Beer"", award for the Best Ballet Soloist for Supporting Roles - by LNOBT’s support foundation ""The Lyre of Orpheus"".
General manager of the LNOBT Gintautas Kėvišas claims: ""These awards, over the decade of their existence, passed over a generation of artists. Today the ""Švyturiai"" awards signify the achievements of another, younger generation.""
The winners of the awards are chosen by a committee of opera and ballet experts since 2002. Over the years the ""Švyturiai"" awards were bestowed to many masters of the stage, including opera soloists Irena Milkevičiūtė, Vytautas Juozapaitis, Joana Gedmintaitė, Dainius Stumbras, Laimonas Pautienius, Julija Stupnianek, Viktor Aleshkov (Russia), Sandra Janušaitė, Sigutė Stonytė, Egidijus Dauskurdis, Irena Zelenkauskaitė, Jovita Vaškevičiūtė, Kęstutis Alčauskis, Ramūnas Urbietis, Vladimiras Prudnikovas, Rafailas Karpis, Ieva Prudnikovaitė, Kostas Smoriginas, Vaidas Vyšniauskas and Merūnas Vitulskis, ballet soloists Eglė Špokaitė, Nerijus Juška, Olga Konošenko, Takasi Aoki (Japan), Aurimas Paulauskas, Miki Hamanaka, Eligijus Butkus, Inga Cibulskytė, Nailia Adigamova, Martynas Rimeikis, Andrius Žužžalkinas, Romas Ceizaris, Anastasija Čumakova.
The number of nominations was also changing throughout these twelve years. In 2009 ""The Lyre of Orpheus"" presented special prizes for Best Performance of Secondary Roles. These awards were given to Arūnas Malikėnas and Rafailas Karpis. In 2011 the same foundation introduced the Debut of the Year category, in which the first winner was young ballet soloist Kipras Chlebinskas.
""Švyturys - Utenos Beer"" is a faithful supporter of Lithuanian projects of culture, arts and sports. The company has been the general sponsor of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre for 12 seasons.
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