Category: stage arts.

Director: Gintaras Varnas.

Designer: Julija Skuratova.

Musical director: Darius Stabinskas.

Photos by Dmitrij Matvejev.

Madrigal operas Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (libretto by Torquato Tasso) and Ballo delle Ingrate (libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini) by Claudio Monteverdi (1567 – 1643).

It is the first staging of these Monteverdi's operas in Lithuania. The music is based on the original copies of the parts, preserved in Bologna library, rather than on newly published modern scores. The new edition of both operas is also complemented by the use of puppets in respect of a historic tradition of travelling theatres to use puppets in their chamber performances. Thus, in these two productions the great expression of Monteverdi's music ingeniously blends with various baroque forms and with the opportunities of puppet theatre.

Gintaras Varnas: ... well, I had been looking forward to staging a Baroque opera for quite a while. It’s been a nice coincidence that Banchetto Musicale approached me with this opportunity to stage the madrigal operas by Claudio Monteverdi, Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Ballo delle Ingrate. What we wanted was to kind of juggle with various forms of Baroque art, using the expression opportunities provided by puppet theatre. The Baroque dimension was of great importance to us, as the music by Claudio Monteverdi is highly expressive. We’ve merged music and theatre to deliver this etude in distinct Baroque style.

Literatūra ir menas, 5 September 2008, No. 32

Gintaras Varnas:...I’ve been charmed by the concept of Baroque art. It is the fragility of Tancredi and Clorinda, and the grotesque rendering and irony, thrilling with a sense of death, in Ballo delle Ingrate, that attracted me. Baroque art is an art of contrasts, shadows, and delusions, of making them happen and fail. It is so theatrical, which distinguishes it from the other great styles. Theatre is the way Baroque speaks

Bernardinai.lt Attempting to tame Baroque, 1 April 2009

Performers

Soloists:

Edita Bagdonaitė - soprano, Clorinda, Una delle Ingrate

Gintarė Skerytė - soprano, Venere

Viktoras Gerasimovas - soprano, Amore

Mindaugas Zimkus - tenor, Narrator

Mindaugas Jankauskas - tenor, Tancredi

Nerijus Masevičius - bass, Plutone

Brevis consort :

Vaida Paukštienė - violin

Rima Švėgždaitė - violin

Robertas Bliškevičius - viola

Mindaugas Bačkus - cello

Darius Stabinskas - viola da gamba

Vitalij Neugasimov - harpsichord

Klaus Mader - theorbo, Germany

Actors:

Sigita Mikalauskaitė

Lijana Muštašvili

Elvyra Piškinaitė