The Tale of Growth – Lūsēns and Vērdiņš’s musical “The Child of the Star” has premiered / Article

The child of Zvaigznes grew up in the family of a poor logger. He grew up beautiful and cruel, but he always has the opportunity to change. This story created by Oscar Wilde can now be seen and heard in the musical “Child of the Star” by Jānis Lūsēns and Kārlis Vērdiņš.

“This fairy tale is directly related to some kind of winter time and a positive result at the end – this guy goes through the initiation process, which we unfortunately lack capital for teenagers at the moment, and becomes a man,” said composer Jānis Lūsēns.

The production consists of songs composed by Lusen. Their texts were created by the poet Kārlis Vērdiņš. For him, this is not his first experience with large-format musical productions, and yet he admits that each of them requires a special approach. What’s more, “Star Child” is a production for the younger generation.

The poet emphasized: “We tried to be quite loyal to Oscar Wilde, not to deviate far from his ideas, to talk about the same thing he was talking about. On all these universal topics –

about who I am, what is my relationship with my parents, what I want to do in life, what is my relationship with others, how do I understand friendship, love.

In my opinion, these are very universal topics that everyone understands. “

The musical part was provided by Jānis Lūsēns’ instrumental group. But along with the experienced stage artists, the story of the Star Child was also sung by the young soloists – students and graduates of the Music Department of the Riga Dome Choir School. The role of Zaķis is also played by one of their teachers Annija Putniņa, who said about the collaboration of artists of different generations: “Young people are very mobile, full of energy, but experienced artists think deeply, they are studying this role. [jaunieši] their acting skills are caught more by those professionals. It’s a very good interaction, a great experience for everyone, I think reciprocally. “

The main roles in the show are Patrick Taback and Markus Rutenthal. Siegfried Muktupāvels, Uģis Roze, Kristīne Zadovska and other soloists also play roles.

The “Star Child” tour started at the VEF Culture Palace, and by mid-February the production will tour the concert halls of the largest cities in Latvia.

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