Having filled the music firmament of the first month of summer with stars, the Vilnius Festival will keep up the brilliance at the festival’s culmination. On 20 June, at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO), conducted by Modestas Pitrėnas, will be joined by Joseph Calleja, the world’s opera star. And the spectacular postlude, or post scriptum, of the festival on 20 August will present the concert Slava Ukraini!, featuring the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson, and soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen, one of the brightest soloists of today.
„Nowadays, it is rare to find an opera soloist with such a distinctive voice timbre, recognisable from just a few notes. Tenor Joseph Calleja, from the small island of Malta, is exactly that. Calleja has a sun-drenched Italian sound, a vibrato that flickers like old silent movies. Calleja (...) is undoubtedly one of the finest lyric tenors,” wrote Tom Huizenga, NPR.
Blessed with a wonderful voice timbre comparable to that of golden-age tenors such as Jussi Björling, Benjamin Gigli or even Enrico Caruso, Calleja is one of the most acclaimed and sought-after soloists of today.
Calleja will share the stage with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maestro Modestas Pitrėnas in the programme of arias from the repertoires of the most famous tenors, including one of the most spectacular and emotional in the history of the opera, E lucevan le stelle (Puccini’s Tosca), Rodolfo’s romantic monologue Che gelida manina (Puccini’s La bohème), the dramatic Ah tout et bien fini (Massenet’s Le Cid), the elegant melody of Ombra mai fu (Handel’s Xerxes) and the tragic Vidino divná (Dvořák’s Rusalka). One of Calleja’s own favourites, Il-Kebbies tal-fanali by Maltese composer Joseph Vella, is also on a programme. In addition, Paolo Tosti’s songs Ideale and A vuchella, time and again enchanting the audiences with their Italian songfulness, are sure to leave no one indifferent.
The festival’s post-scriptum concert on 20 August will also offer a wealth of operatic gems. The programme includes the Introduction from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Isolde’s death scene (Liebestod), with Isolde sung by American soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen, who has appeared at the Metropolitan, Covent Garden, Naples’ San Carlo, Bavarian, Berlin, Vienna and other opera houses. One of the “most spectacular voices in the world of opera”, as Le Monde once described Willis-Sørensen, she is renowned for the versatility of her repertoire, with works ranging from Mozart to Wagner, the latter of which will also be enjoyed by the Vilnius Festival audience.
Another operatic work in the programme of the concert on 20 August is the Suite from the opera The Mothers of Kherson by Maxim Kolomiiets, one of the most prominent contemporary Ukrainian composers. This will be the premiere. According to the composer himself, the Suite was written at the request of conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson and will see the light of day before the opera itself. The Suite is a vivid reflection of the tragic events recounted in the opera that the composer is writing. The Mothers of Kherson tells the story of the fate of three Kherson women. They rescue their children, who have been kidnapped by the Russians during the occupation of the town. The story is documentary, full of drama, hope and despair. “In the opera, I tried to recreate the propitious feelings and transfer them into a Suite that becomes a seamless musical narrative. I wrote the work with faith in people, love for my dearest and hope for the future,” says composer Kolomiiets.
The culmination and apogee of the festival will be the performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (Fate) by the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra and its conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson. As music critic Michael Clive has written, Beethoven’s Symphony of Fate is a work-icon, which we all seem to know from birth, with “the most famous opening in the history of classical music”.
It should be added that Wilson, a wonderful Canadian conductor of Ukrainian origin, who has already appeared on the Lithuanian National Philharmonic stage on several occasions, will be making her first appearance with the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, which she has founded, and which has been touring around the world for three years.
Wilson has founded the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra in spring 2022 as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It involves musicians from Ukraine, war refugees and Ukrainians living abroad. The orchestra’s touring and performance list is growing, including the world’s most famous stages, cathedrals and festivals.
“My greatest hope is that one day soon the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will be able to perform in Ukraine for its own audience, and at that concert we will celebrate the victory of Ukraine and its brave people over the terrible disaster that the country has been forced to endure,” says conductor Wilson.
Let’s brace this hope with the Vilnius Festival concert Slava Ukraini!
All concerts of Vilnius Festival are announced on the website www.nationalphilharmonic.lt The festival is organised by the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society and PI Vilnius Festivals, with the support of Vilnius City Municipality, Juozas and Laima Magelinskas and Artis Centrum Hotels.
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