The Scenographer

Spell check says it’s not a word, but I say it is. Those who work in photography are called photographers, right?

I don’t see Daiva Samajauskaitė (left) very often. Rumor has it that lately she spends the day combing through the dense forests of used clothing at the many second-hand stores throughout Vilnius in search of the perfect costumes for all the soloists, chorus members, and dancers who will be on stage during the premiere of Julius. And I believe it, because when I do see Daiva, it’s usually when she slips into rehearsals with armloads of bags filled with clothing – derby hats, faded pants, old button-up shirts, suspenders, and plenty more. Other times she’s walking around with measuring tape and fabric samples, checking sizes and comparing colors. The photo to the right shows a post-rehearsal costume sampling for members of the chorus.

This is all costume work, but even before I arrived in Vilnius last week, Daiva had already finished with stage designs for Julius. Her designs are being realized right now and should be ready with plenty of time to spare. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but I will tell you there are elements of the costumes and scenery that are historically accurate and others that come from Daiva’s imagination. Together, however, I think these elements will achieve the goals of depicting the time as well as communicating the underlying themes of the story.

Daiva graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Art and has since been working as a scenographer and costume designer in opera, theater, and film in both Lithuania and abroad. Her work was a part of last year’s NOA Festival in the opera Izadora, written by composer and singer Jonas Sakalauskas (to give you an idea of how intimate the music world in Lithuania is, consider these 3 things about Jonas: he is one of the founders of Operomanija [the NOA Festival organizers], he is married to Agnė Sabulytė [the soloist in Izadora], and sings alongside Tomas Pavilionis [the tenor singing the role of Julius] in the pop-vocal group El Fuego). Parentheses and brackets aside, these pictures are a sample of Daiva’s work from Izadora. Photos by Marius Macijauskas.

After working on Julius in relative solitude for the last few months, I can’t tell you what a treat it is to suddenly be in an environment filled with so many people this familiar with the music, story, characters, and so many other details, and who are working so hard (every day since I’ve been here, in fact) to make the premiere a success. It’s really taking a sizable army of artists and performers to bring this opera to life and I couldn’t be happier to be in the midst of it all.

The Venue

Again, I’ve neglected to keep everyone up to speed on the many exciting pieces of news that keep coming in. Sorry! Now I have to deal with all the backed up stories and present them to you in a logical order. Let’s begin with the premiere venue: the Russian Drama Theater of Lithuania (Lietuvos Rusų Dramos Teatras).

Since its completion almost a hundred years ago, the theater has changed hands and functions several times. It opened as one of the most important cultural institutions in Vilnius and began hosting productions on a regular basis. Famously, and according to the plaque fixed to the building a few years ago, a conference on Lithuanian independence led by Jonas Basanavičius, one of the most important figures in the history of Lithuanian nationalism (and for whom the street outside the theater is named), took place here in 1917. In 1925 the famous Polish director and experimental theater impresario Juliusz Osterwa brought his company, Reduta, to its new home in Vilnius. In 1948 it became the home of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater, and in 1974, the year the LNOBT moved into its then brand new opera house, the Lithuanian National Drama Theater took up residence here (until it moved into its new theater in 1981). Finally, in 1986 it assumed its current title of the Russian Drama Theater.

Today it is used as both a theater and an opera house, and during my stay in Vilnius last year, I saw several brand new operas staged there, including Jonas Sakalauskas’ Donoras (The Donor), Vidmantas Bartulis’ Aušrinė (The Morning Star), and Algirdas Martinaitis’ Pasaulio Dangoraštis (The World Skyscraper).

The building itself was designed by architects Waclaw Michniewicz and Aleksander Parczewski and built from 1912-13. The design is inspired by a collection of styles, most notably both Baroque and Romanesque (one article mentioned the “Krakow-style” two-tiered, red tile roofs), and has undergone several renovations, including one in the last ten years. But before I reveal my utter lack of expertise in architecture, let me refer you to the pictures to the right and at the beginning of this post.

The main hall, in which Julius will be performed, is a large but intimate space that seats 537 people on an orchestra level and two tiers of balconies. The stage is big and there is even a pit for the orchestra!

On the night of the premiere of Julius, in the theater lobby will be a historical photography exhibit documenting the life of Lithuanians living in DP camps after WWII, courtesy of the Lithuanian World Community and the Lithuanian Institute of Emigration. This was a brilliant idea on the part of the organizers (more on them in a later post), as it is sure to place the audience even deeper into this often neglected period of history. And given that Act I ends with the family escaping the Russian zone of Germany into the British zone and Act II picks up about five years after the family settled in Camp Wehnen, the exhibit will provide effective continuity to the opera’s plot.

I’m anxious to see how the scenographer (set and costume designer) will use the space to recreate the era or present her own interpretation. In fact, she’ll be the topic of my next post. Stick around!

The Soloists

I have some exciting news this week! The two principal soloists for Julius have been confirmed.

First is Adelina. The opera is named after my grandfather, but it could just as well have been named after my grandmother. Adelina may have been a soft-spoken person, but she was often the driving force behind many of the family’s biggest decisions, including the final decision to emigrate to the U.S. Similarly, in the opera she may not sing as often as Julius, but her role is crucial to the plot.

Singing the role of Adelina will be the rising young Lithuanian star soprano, Ona Kolobovaitė, who recently was catapulted to headlines across the country by winning “Triumfo arka,” the Lithuanian counterpart to American Idol or Britain’s Got Talent and focused almost exclusively on opera arias and numbers from musicals. A quick YouTube search will yield several results, including videos from the competition.

Just like the conductor, Kolobovaitė is only 25 years old, yet she will be adding this recent award to an already impressive list of significant and diverse accomplishments, including performances with the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater (Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Annina in Verdi’s La Traviata), roles in plays and musicals such as Terrence McNally’s Master Class (based on the life of Maria Callas) and Vilnius composer Gediminas Gelgotas’ Musicality of Life, and, on five separate occasions, 1st prize in the “Dainų dainelė” contest, one of the longest running vocal competitions in Lithuania. She even stars in the Lithuanian soap opera Nekviesta meilė (Uninvited Love).

As one would correctly assume, however, the most active and important character in the opera is Julius, and boasting an equally impressive list of accolades is Tomas Pavilionis, the tenor who will sing the role. This 26 year-old from Kaunas made his debut at the Chicago Lithuanian Opera in 2005 and has since gone on to perform in several operas, concerts, and other projects in Lithuania.

Pavilionis’ roles have included Gherardo in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s Yevgeny Onegin, Lyonel in Flotow’s Martha, as well as such important roles as Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata and Buratinas in Jurgis Gaižauskas’ Buratinas. Currently (and in addition to playing the role of Julius, of course) he is preparing to sing the roles of Almaviva in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi. His performance in Julius will be his second appearance at an NOA Festival.

But Pavilionis’ musical activity is not limited to opera. He has performed with the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, was a prizewinner in the 2009 Stasys Baras Vocal Competition, and routinely performs with Jonas Sakalauskas and Eugenijus Chrebtovas in the pop vocal group El Fuego (similar to the multinational group Il Divo).

With soloists as accomplished as Pavilionis and Kolobovaitė and the artistry and talent they will bring to the roles of Julius and Adelina, I know Julius has just made a huge leap towards a successful premiere performance in March.

About the Conductor

Many people have asked if I will be conducting the opera, and this is a good question, as many composers are also active conductors. The answer is no, but I am happy to elaborate that answer by telling you a little about who will be conducting. I never actually met him during my time in Vilnius, but I certainly remember his performances.

Ričardas Šumila is a young Lithuanian conductor originally from Kaunas, the interwar capital and the second largest city in Lithuania, and began studying music when he was five years old. By the time he was in the 8th grade, after gaining a solid foundation at the piano and in music theory and history, he was ready to begin conducting as well as composing. After studying conducting with Audronė Marcinkevičiutė and composition with Algirdas Brilius and Zita Bružaitė, in 2003 he graduated from the Juozas Naujalis High School for Music and entered the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater (LMTA) in Vilnius.

In Vilnius, he studied choral conducting with Povilas Gylys and orchestral conducting with the renowned Gintaras Rinkevičius, and it wasn't long before he won the LMTA's prestigious Senate Scholarship in recognition of his outstanding work and his commitment to concert performances.

In the spring of 2007, Šumila finished his undergraduate studies by winning 1st place in the Jaronimas Kačinskas Young Conductors' Competition and in the summer of that same year entered the master's program at the LMTA, continuing his studies with Rinkevičius.

The last couple of years have been especially busy for Šumila. Beginning at the end of 2008 with his work leading the rehearsals of the Pucinni opera Gianni Schicchi, he went on to conduct several opera and musical theater performances throughout 2009, from such well known works as Carmen and Sweeney Todd, to new works such as Rita Mačiliūnaitė's opera, Nebūti ar Nebūti, which he premiered at last year's NOA Festival.

He has been equally active in chamber and orchestral concerts around Vilnius. In the spring of 2009, he conducted both the LMTA Symphony Orchestra as well as the Lithuanian National Philharmonic, including the world premiere of Rūta Vitkauskaitė's Stabai. Also in 2009, he led a unique chamber ensemble for a project titled "Neįprastos istorijos" (Unusual Stories) that consisted of several performances of chamber music and which resulted in a permanent relationship with the ensemble under the new name "InSpe" (pictured below with Šumila).

At only 25 years old, Šumila already has a promising career as a conductor and I am incredibly excited that he so enthusiastically agreed to conduct the premiere of Julius.

Premiere Date Confirmed!

Hi! It's been a while, but the good news is that my complete preoccupation with composing and preparing the score is what has prevented me from keeping this blog updated. I got back to the U.S. in August with most of the opera completed, but I quickly learned that there was (and is!) still much work to be done.

But now let's get to the really great news to which the title of this post refers: a premiere performance of Julius has been scheduled for March 23, 2010 in Vilnius! The opera will be the opening work of the third annual NOA (Naujosios Operos Akcija) Festival, which runs March 23-28 and is devoted entirely to new opera. I just sent the conductor and festival director the piano/vocal score, and soon I'll know who the soloists will be.

From now until March, I'll be working on the full score for Julius and doing what I can to promote and build support for the premiere performance. In fact, if anyone reading would like to help make the premiere as memorable as possible through a contribution, please don't hesitate to contact me at JuliusTheOpera@gmail.com.

Stay tuned for future posts about the soloists and performers, the conductor, the festival and its organizers, the performance venue, and the production itself. And if this is your first visit to this blog, don't forget to read my previous posts to learn more details about the creation of the opera and share in all the fun and interesting experiences I've had over the past year or so since the project's beginning.

This is an incredibly exciting time for me and everyone involved, and I hope you'll follow along over the next few months as we bring this work to life!

Competition Results (and Recording)!

The Vox Juventutis '09 results were announced the day of the concert, but I wanted to wait until I got a copy of the live recording before posting a blog entry. First of all, the entire performance, which included 12 brand new works for unaccompanied choir, was professional, well attended, and very enjoyable. The pieces, written by both Lithuanian and foreign composers, showed a wide variety of styles that kept the concert interesting and the audience eager to hear each new work.

Now for the good news: the excerpt I described in my last post won both 2nd place as well as the "Jauna Muzika" award for the choir's favorite work! Most importantly, I now have something you can finally hear for yourself. Visit my MySpace page and click on Dipukų Rauda (DPs' Lament) in the player window to hear the recording from the concert.

The 1st place award went to Lithuanian composer Albertas Navickas for his work, È. Albertas, who also studied with Osvaldas Balakauskas, recently finished his master's degree at the Academy. As I write, I am listening to his Iconic for orchestra, performed last month by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra in a concert of orchestral works by graduating master's students. After hearing many of his works during my time here, one feature of his music (among other great qualities) that continues to win me over is the pacing of each work. I can't help but feel a sense of patience every time I hear something of his.

3rd place was shared by two composers. Justina Šikšnelytė, a Lithuanian composer, just finished her first year in the bachelor's program at the Academy. Her work, Aš Gimiau (I was Born), with text by the composer, grows from a series of staggered/echoed melodies that sets the rather melancholy tone for the entire piece, eventually ending with a soprano solo followed by whispers from the choir. Šikšnelytė, I recently discovered, is also a talented jazz singer, and that influence makes its way into some of her concert works. Also winning 3rd place was Turkish composer Ali Somay (whose last name means "pure moon!"), a bachelor's student studying here through the Erasmus program. I heard three of his works while I have been here, and each dsiplayed his curiosity and creativity by means of unorthodox or extended playing techniques. His choral work, Zaman Yok, also with text by the composer, was no exception. And among the breath tremolos, tongue clicks, and hyper-registral singing (singing so high or low that there is no engagement of the vocal cords at all), this challenging work was still grounded in some very beatiful pitched material.

At the end of the concert, the audience voiced their opinion as they were allowed to vote for their favorite work. After the votes were counted, the "audience favorite" prize went to Wieslaw Sobieski, also a student at the Academy, for his excrutiatingly beautiful work, Rauda (Lament).

The press release (in Lithuanian) can be found here.

Excerpt Performance in Vilnius!

No matter what I might tell you in writing about the music, there is nothing like actually hearing it. On June 18, if any of you happen to be in Vilnius, the award-winning Lithuanian chamber choir Jauna Muzika will sing a short choral excerpt from the opera as part of their annual "Vox Juventutis" competition for young composers. Details of the performance can be found here.

Regardless of the outcome of the competition, more important is, first, the quality of performance the music will get, and second, that the performance will be recorded. If you didn't explore the link above thoroughly, the choir has a few audio excerpts from some of its album releases here. And for those of you with a subscription to the Naxos site, you can listen to their recording of Osvaldas Balakauskas' (my teacher) Requiem here.

Ultimately, what this means is that all of you out there who might be following this blog will finally get to hear some music!

The excerpt, titled Dipukų Rauda (DPs' Lament) as a standalone concert piece, is taken from the first scene of Act I, just after the short prologue that opens the entire opera. In a real opera staging, the chorus is made up of DPs (Displaced Persons) of different Eastern European origin, crammed together into a train car. Despite the diverse makeup of the group, they all are fleeing the same danger, are uncertain about their future, and share the same feelings of fear and anxiety (please forgive the following rudimentary and completely unpoetic translation from the original Lithuanian text):

Baimė kausto mintis - Fear grips the mind

Ryžtas trypia širdis. - Determination tramples the heart.

Sunkias beržo sula - The birch sap is strained

Ne namų o speigų - No home but hard frost

Tolimųjų kraštų - The distant land

Mūsų siaubo akių - Our eyes of horror

Pamestų tarp miškų - Lost among forests

Sutryptų be jausmų. - Trampled without feeling.

Ką vaikai pamatys - What will the children see

Jei nebėgsi tolyn, - If you don't flee further,

Kur paslėpsi akis - Where will you hide your eyes

Nuo likimo nagų? - From fate's clutches?

Gal kitur bus geriau - Maybe elsewhere will be better

Gal kiti bus geri. - Maybe others will be kind.

Baimė kausto mintis - Fear grips the mind

Ryžtas trypia širdis. - Determination tramples the heart.

Yes, my translation is a direct and clumsy one, but one can imagine some florid yet tasteful English poetry in its place. The text is pretty straightforward, but I should explain a couple of lines that may not be entirely clear in meaning.

Determination tramples the heart: The word "ryžtas" in the Lithuanian-English dictionary is most closely translated as "resolution," "determination," or "strong purpose." But if I were to use a whole phrase to more accurately translate the word, then it would be "the choice one makes of his own free will," which gives a much better picture of the line's reference. In other words, as one makes the agonizing decision to leave his home, perhaps for good, he must overcome the inevitable and instinctual feelings of anxiety and homesickness that will accompany such a move, and his determination to follow through with this decision contradicts everything his heart tells him.

The distant land: I know my translation sounds like a History Channel special about Columbus' voyage to America, but this line actually refers to Siberia, infamous over the past three or four centuries for its Russian (and more recently in history, Soviet) labor camps to which millions of people, including Russians, were exiled. Towards the end of the first Soviet occupation of Lithuania (1940-41), thousands of Lithuanians began to be deported to Siberia, where they joined the many groups and nationalities who had already suffered the same fate.

The text of the excerpt may be brief, but it effectively sets the underlying tone of the opera. It is this tension between listening to one's heart and making painful but perhaps life-saving choices that drives the plot (I say "plot," but I'm also talking about the lives of millions of real people) forward.