On Friday evening, the parade grounds will be wide open for spectators after the reconstruction Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre the door An esteemed audience will watch a production of Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" with world-renowned performers, which opens the theater season.
"I am especially happy about this premiere, because "Aida" has not sounded on the stage of LNOBT for more than a decade. And this opera simply must be in the repertoire of every self-respecting opera house! The return of "Aida" is a special celebration for us also because the performance was created by the best Lithuanian producers. This will be one of the more expensive LNOBT productions, which our colleagues are already very interested in - the directors of both Estonian and Latvian national operas will attend the premiere. I hope it will leave a great impression on the audience and remain in the theater's repertoire for several decades," says LNOBT interim general director Audrius Kundrotas.
The key to the production is the music
The premiere performances of "Aidas" will allow the audience to enjoy an extremely strong line-up of soloists. According to Jurgita Skiotytė-Norvaišienė, head of the Artistic Activities Department of LNOBT, the main part of Aida was prepared for the premiere by three very different performers: Kristinė Opolais, who has been making Latvia's name famous in the world of opera for fifteen years, Viktorija Miškūnaitė, our audience's favorite, and Kseniya, a soloist of the Ukrainian National Opera who came to Lithuania after the war started. Bakkhritdinova-Kravchuk.
According to K. Opolais herself, the part of Aida is special to her, because she sang it when she started her career in the Latvian National Opera: "I was very young then and I'm not sure that I understood what I was doing. And so I got the chance to return to Aida, conducted by my respected Sesto Quatrini.
With him in 2016. we met at New York's Metropolitan Opera. Then I was preparing for my concert tour of the Baltic countries, and the maestro kindly agreed to conduct those concerts. We also presented one of them at LNOBT, so I am glad to be back here with S. Quatrini. During my career, I have participated in many productions and I am always happy when the direction does not interfere with the music of the opera and the story it tells. From this point of view, my return to Aida will be a real success."
However, the director Gediminas Šeduikis admits that there will be some uncomfortable moments for the soloists in the performance. "But I really didn't try to complicate the action of the opera specifically. In general, we all agreed not to do anything that is not in the music, because Aida itself is brilliantly written. Showing only what G. Verdi wrote is already terribly difficult. In this production, 100 percent of G. Verdi's opera piano is performed: not a single measure, not a single note or pause is omitted. The ballet scenes in the opera will be performed by the artists of the LNOBT ballet troupe, they were staged by the best Lithuanian choreographer Martynas Rimeikis", reminds G. Šeduikis.
There will be no elephants on stage
Set designer Sigita Šimkūnaitė hopes that when the curtain rises, the audience of "Aidas" will immediately understand that the action of the opera takes place in Egypt. "But we stylized Egypt monumentally and, of course, we barely fit on the stage: from edge to edge, from floor to ceiling. But the audience will definitely not see elephants and other traditional attributes on stage," revealed S. Šimkūnaitė.
Costume designer Sandra Straukaitė emphasized the overall image of the scene: "The main colors of the scenography are black and gold. Egyptian costumes will become blue, green, black, white, gold accents on this background. Meanwhile, the Egyptians' opponents from Ethiopia will be wearing clay-colored costumes reminiscent of the African land, so it should be clear to the audience which camp belongs to which character. Despite this, the costumes of Aida and Radames will have similarities in color," pointed out the author of the opera costumes.
Dedication to A. Žagar
The music director and conductor of the production, S. Quatrini, was happy to finally get to know G. Šeduikis as a director, and not just as an excellent assistant to guest directors. "Gedimin is a musical person with twenty years of theater experience. He doesn't like to talk much about his productions - he makes them. Back in 2017, when I came to conduct "Capulet and Montekiu", I asked him what kind of production he would like. G. Šeduikis answered: "Echoes".
And here we have the Echo. I would like to dedicate this production to our mutual friend Andris Žagar, who loved Lithuanian opera very much and determined the qualitative leap in the XNUMXst century. in memory of the opening of the Latvian Opera. All the more so because we are presenting a fantastic international line-up of soloists that would decorate any theater in the world", said the confident Italian maestro, inviting the audience to come to the theater in Lithuanian at the end.
In addition to the three lead actors, we will hear Justin Gringytė, Kostas Smorigins, Arūnas Malikėnas, Tad Girininkas, Liudas Mikalauskas, Liudas Norvaišas, Rafailas Karpis, Ukrainian Ksenija Nikolaieva, Venezuelan Jorge Puert, Uruguayan Gaston Rivero and many others singing in the Aidas performances.
"Aida" plays on the LNOBT stage this season are shown only on November 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. Spectators visiting the premiere will be able to purchase not only the play's app, but also a specially created comic book of the abbreviated "Aidas" libretto, the creation of which was contributed by artificial intelligence.
