News
On March 27, 2021, the World Theatre Day was traditionally marked in Lithuania by awarding the nominated theatre artists for their works presented on the nationwide professional theatre scene during the course of the last year. This time the Lithuanian Theatre Awards turned a spotlight on the production of Richard Wagner’s Flying Dutchman at the historic site of Klaipėda ship lift initiated by the Klaipėda State Music Theatre (director and production designer Dalius Abaris, music director and conductor Modestas Pitrėnas, director Gediminas Šeduikis, set designer Sigita Šimkūnaitė, costume and make-up designer Sandra Straukaitė, lighting designer Andrius Stasiulis).
Out of five nominations in the categories for best director, best set design and best soloist two Golden Crosses of the Stage went to the creative team of The Flying Dutchman: Dalius Abaris was announced Best Director and Tadas Girininkas Best Soloist at the Lithuanian Theatre Awards ceremony held at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius on March 27, 2021. On the eve of the World Theatre Day, March 26, this production received accolades in Klaipėda as well. It won the Commendation Mask Award of Klaipėda Municipality and Klaipėda Branch of the Lithuanian Theatre Union as Best Theatre Performance of the year 2020.
Now this exceptional opera production awaits the attention of international audiences. The recording of The Flying Dutchman made at the premiere by the Lithuanian National Radio and Television will be made available to the millions of viewers on the OperaVision platform from April 2 to July 3, 2021.
An award-winning directorial debut in opera
That an opera director wins the Golden Cross of the Stage in the category for Best Director, which lists the nominees from across the whole spectrum of theatre genres is rather the exception than the rule. In the last decade only two opera directors managed to attain such high recognition in Lithuania: Gintaras Varnas for the production of Onutė Narbutaitė’s opera Cornet and Günter Krämer for Verdi’s Rigoletto (both at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre). This year Dalius Abaris was in luck. He was nominated and announced among the winners of the Lithuanian Theatre Awards for his directorial contribution to the production of Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman at the Klaipėda State Music Theatre (KSMT), which was premiered on August 1, 2020, at the historic site of Paul Willy Lindenau shipyard in Klaipėda. It became not only the first ever production of this opera in Klaipėda but the first open-air production of Wagner’s opera in Lithuania either. Abaris who was also nominated in the category for the best set design (together with set designer Sigita Šimkūnaitė) must be credited with proposing the idea and location for this spectacular production.
Abaris says it gave him quite a few first-time experiences: “firstly, it was my first foray into the field of opera. Of course, as an event producer I’m well familiar with the theatre stage, except that I mostly used it for putting on official ceremonies, concerts or television projects. It is also for the first time that I had a chance to produce an open-air event in Klaipėda. And this is the first time I had the opportunity to collaborate with director Gediminas Šeduikis to whom I am most grateful for ensuring our smooth-running cooperation and giving me some important ‘opera lessons.’ In my career I had to contrive and implement many technical tricks but having a real ship that ‘sailed’ straight into the auditorium was really an unprecedented experience. But most important of all is that I really felt how engaging the theatre scene is and what a versatile and compelling genre opera is.”
Abaris’ reputation as a producer and director rests largely on high-profile national celebrations, grand music and TV projects. He was the author of concept and script for the opening ceremony of Lithuania’s EU Presidency, which took place at the Grand Courtyard of Vilnius University in 2013. In 2018, he directed the project “Gloria to Lithuania” to commemorate the Centennial of the Restoration of the State of Lithuania at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, for which he was awarded the medal of the Order for Merits to Lithuania.
Tadas Girininkas: It takes some nerve to sing Wagner
Bass Tadas Girininkas was awarded the Golden Cross of the Stage for the role of Daland in The Flying Dutchman (KSMT) and the role of Henry in Anna Bolena (LNOBT). He was nominated together with Almas Švilpa who sang the title role in The Flying Dutchman.
“Opera is music expressed through drama. Thus the composer comes first and directing comes next… I sang Daland for the first time in my life in the production of the Klaipėda State Music Theatre. And it was my second meeting with Wagner, after the role of King Henry the Fowler in Lohengrin at the LNOBT. Wagner is one of the most complex composers; it takes a lot of diligence and consistency to perform his music. The rule ‘once I’ve learnt it, now I know it all’ is not valid for Wagner. Even though The Flying Dutchman is one of Wagner’s early operas, less complicated than, say, the Ring cycle or Tristan and Isolde, I’m glad that I’ve already got some experience, which allows me to sing Wagner’s roles without much trepidation,” says Girininkas.
Girininkas was born in Palanga and educated at the Eduardas Balsys Gymnasium of Arts in Klaipėda. His achievements as an opera soloist have been recognised with the Beacon of Opera and the Golden Cross of the Stage awards in Lithuania. In 2014 he was noticed by the artists’ management agency from Denmark, which led to his debut appearances at festivals in Sweden, Denmark, Lucerne and Nuremberg Opera House. Still wider possibilities opened to him after his appearance in Jacques Fromental Halévy’s opera La juive in Konstanz. Currently pursuing an active career in various European opera and concert venues, the soloist was happy to return to Klaipėda last summer for the premiere of The Flying Dutchman because it was in this harbour city that he started his journey into the wide world of music.
KSMT Information
An all-Italian crew to embark on the production of Philip Glass’s Voyage in Lithuania
Sponsors
© 2020 Klaipeda State Music THEATRE.
All rights reserved