“Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater Symphony Orchestra performs first-ever opera concert in Latvia at Liepaja Concert Hall’s Lielais Dzintars”

Last weekend, the spring season of Liepaja concert hall “Lielais dzintars” ended with an ambitious concert of opera music, which was offered to the audience for the first time in Latvia by the symphony orchestra of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater under the leadership of conductor Ričardas Šumilas.

Together with the strongest soloists of the neighboring country – soprano Viktorija Miškūnaitis, tenor Merūnas Vitulski and baritone Steponas Zoni – the peaks of the opera genre sounded in the concert.

At the gala, the soloists of the “Triumph of the Opera” concert performed the most famous and passionate arias, songs and duets from the works of the world’s most famous composers Giacomo Puccini, Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, Gioacchino Rossini, Franz Lehard, Pietro Mascagni and Leonard Bernstein. Between these emotionally charged scenes, the symphony orchestra delighted the audience with dynamic overtures, preludes and intermezzos.

Celebrating the shared musical heritage of Latvians and Lithuanians, the chief conductor Ričardas Šumilas also included arias from the opera “Part” by Liepaja-born Lithuanian national composer Baļas Dvarjonas in the program.

At the end of the concert, all three opera soloists, accompanied by an orchestra, dedicated to the audience the cheerful and uplifting Neapolitan song “Funiculi, funiculà” by Luigi Denza. Thanks to the stormy standing ovation, the musicians played a part of this song again.

According to representatives of the concert hall, during the summer season, on July 29, in the concert garden “Put, vējini!” listeners are invited to experience the joy of life in the world of Georgian music, the rich colors of which will be revealed by one of Georgia’s brightest singers – ethno-jazz diva Nino Katamadze and the band “Insight”.