Together with Aleksandr Antonenko the wonderful young lyric dramatic soprano Sandra Janusaite which was a very good choice for the demanding program, which included the most well known parts from Pique Dama, Tosca and Turandot.

In addition the very well prepared and well playing Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gintaras Rinkevicius, as always well prepared and with many very good soloists in the orchestra, specially both the clarinets, flute, oboe, English horn.

 

 We had the pleasure of listening to one of the young tenors, Aleksandr Antonenko, who is on his way to take over the free places as one of the leading tenors in the world, something we already heard when we first time enjoyed him as Alfredo in La Traviata in Kristiansand in Norway, followed by Oslo shortly after, and now on his way to The Metropolitan Opera in New York this spring.

Gintaras Rinkevicius is a good conductor, as we have heard not only in Lithuania, but also abroad; I don’t forget his great Othello in Malmø some years ago. He has the opera feeling, which is so important. That he in addition are having a very good Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra which follows his ideas, and are having many good soloists, in addition to the already mentioned, too the pauke soloist, harp, cello and violas. In addition the whole string group is having a very good homogeny sound, where the different groups have their own sound. A good string section is a must for a good orchestra.

Some details in the arrangement as a whole are not good. The very small printed program is too easily made. It doesn’t tell the audience what they are going to hear with the most elementary details. The management must remember that the concert is not only for specialists. Well, then they have the introducing woman, which could have saved this, by giving us the little missing backgrounds information. She could have given us where the numbers are placed in the operas. Some of the history in the operas, but no, this is not prepared, either she don’t know. I read some information in Lithuanian language in the program.

This autumn Vilnius has been The EU City of Culture, which has given focus on to attend foreignes - tourists to Vilnius. Such an event is a popular concert to vist for foreigners, as the music isuniversal, but there must be some possibilityes to understand a little bit. If any foreigners has been there they have not understand any thing.

Between the demanding ending of Tosca and the opening aria “In Questa Reggia” in Turandot, the soprano, Sandra Janusaite, could have needed a small break.

This small break the introducing woman could have been giving her by introducing shortly the history in Turandot. But no help from the introducing side. But why is the introducing woman then there? It only split up the program unnecessarily, and spoils for the concert. And as you can hear at the applause, the introducer is not popular to have in this kind of program. Please think about that for the future!