Mikalojus Konstantinas \u010ciurlionis (1875\u20131911) had a deep understanding of the significance and importance of the opera genre within the broader cultural landscape. In January 1906, he wrote to his brother Povilas (even before the premiere of the first national opera\u2014Mikas Petrauskas\u2019s *Birut\u0117*): \u201cAre you familiar with the Lithuanian movement? I am determined to dedicate all my past and future works to Lithuania. We are learning the Lithuanian language, and I am preparing to write a Lithuanian opera.\u201d In this way, the composer singled out opera as a particularly significant form of expression for the identity of the nation\u2019s musical culture. <\/p>\n
The idea of creating a Lithuanian opera became a concrete goal for M. K. \u010ciurlionis after he met a young writer, Sofija Kymantait\u0117, who later became his wife. By the summer of 1908, the opera\u2019s theme had already been decided. The opera was to be based on the legend \u201cThe Queen of the Baltic Sea,\u201d created around 1830 by the Lithuanian literary figure, ethnographer, folklorist, writer, historian, and translator Liudvikas Adomas Jucevi\u010dius. The surviving sketches of M. K. \u010ciurlionis\u2019s set designs and correspondence regarding the libretto being prepared by Sofija clearly indicate that the opera was based on this version of the legend about the love of J\u016brat\u0117 and Kastytis. <\/p>\n
From their correspondence, we know that Sofija had finished the libretto and sent it to St. Petersburg, where Konstantinas was staying at the time. We also know that while there, the composer spent a considerable amount of time at the piano with the libretto, searching for the right sound for *J\u016brat\u0117*. Having already familiarized himself with the libretto, Konstantin wrote to Sofija about the musical language and staging concepts of the future opera: \u201cI like *J\u016brat\u0117* more and more each time, and today I already heard a little of the music in it.\u201d <\u2026> Zose, Zose, advise me. Should I avoid folk melodies in it, or not? Should I take the technical difficulties into account, or not? Because when you think about how poor our people are and how they have nothing, I feel sorry that this work will pass them by as well, and yet you and I want to give them something. You understand me, Zosele\u2014I don\u2019t want to compromise myself; I just want to set a more challenging task for myself. I want it to be something that can be done even in Warsaw, and in time, in Vilnius as well, but a lot of water will flow under the bridge before then.\u201d <\/p>\n
It becomes clear from the letters that the composer already had a clear and detailed vision of the opera\u2019s opening and the first scene\u2014the order in which the characters would appear, the sequence of the operatic numbers, the sequence in which the choral parts enter, and similar details\u2014but none of this was ever written down or preserved in musical notation. From 1906 to 1909, when the composer was considering the possibility of creating an opera, \u010ciurlionis\u2019s works from that period\u2014most of which have survived only as sketches\u2014 reveal a highly diverse and subtle artistic world, dominated by seascape imagery and interwoven fragments of folk songs, attesting to compositional strategies that were very bold for that time. These sketches and fragments reveal just how deeply \u010ciurlionis had immersed himself in his planned Lithuanian opera *J\u016brat\u0117*.<\/p>\n
Based on these sketches and fragments, the ideas immortalized in the \u010ciurlionis\u2019 letters, set design sketches, and by using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to generate musical material, a large creative team has created an imaginary opera by M. K. \u010ciurlionis titled \u201cJ\u016brat\u0117\u201d \u2014a dream that Konstantinas himself never had the chance to realize.<\/p>\n
The opera tells the legend of J\u016brat\u0117, the queen of the seas, whose amber palace stands on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. J\u016brat\u0117 falls in love with a man from the land\u2014the brave and humble fisherman Kastytis, who defies the will of the gods and fishes in the sacred waters of the sea, which are forbidden to humans. <\/p>\n
The gods, especially the mighty Perk\u016bnas, are enraged by the forbidden love between the divine queen and a mortal man. He strikes J\u016brat\u0117\u2019s amber palace with lightning, shattering it and separating the lovers. Kastytis drowns in the stormy sea, while J\u016brat\u0117 is condemned to weep eternally for her lost love and wash her amber tears onto the shores of the Baltic Sea. It is true that \u010ciurlionis wanted his opera to be a work open to interpretation and perhaps to bear witness to eternal love; which is why, as he had intended, the \u201cEternal Duet\u201d is heard in the imagined finale of *J\u016brat\u0117*. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Historical Consultant Rokas Zubovas<\/p>\n
Composers: Mantautas Krukauskas, Arvydas Malcys, Mykolas Natalevi\u010dius<\/p>\n
Assistant Director Gina Busko<\/p>\n
The opera’s libretto was translated into English by Julius Keleras<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Producer of “Operomania”<\/p>\n
Co-producer: Vilnius Old Theater<\/p>\n
Partners: Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, Klaip\u0117da Puppet Theater, \u201cNaujasis teatras,\u201d Lithuanian Composers\u2019 Union<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mikalojus Konstantinas \u010ciurlionis (1875\u20131911) had a deep understanding of the significance and importance of the opera genre within the broader cultural landscape. In January 1906, he wrote to his brother Povilas (even before the premiere of the first national opera\u2014Mikas Petrauskas\u2019s *Birut\u0117*): \u201cAre you familiar with the Lithuanian movement? I am determined to dedicate all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":51348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"mec_category":[535],"mec_locations":[504],"class_list":["post-51425","mec-events","type-mec-events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","mec_category-opera-en"],"acf":[],"mec_location":[{"id":504,"name":"Klaip\u0117da State Musical Theatre","slug":"klaipeda-state-musical-theatre"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klaipedatravel.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mec-events\/51425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klaipedatravel.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mec-events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klaipedatravel.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/mec-events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klaipedatravel.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klaipedatravel.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klaipedatravel.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klaipedatravel.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klaipedatravel.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51425"},{"taxonomy":"mec_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klaipedatravel.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mec_category?post=51425"},{"taxonomy":"mec_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klaipedatravel.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mec_locations?post=51425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}