Ambitious future plans
“This season is special and very symbolic for us. On the one hand, forty years is quite a long time for a theater, on the other hand, there is still so much to be done. We will celebrate the anniversary on October 15 with the concert ‘Symphony of Hope’, dedicated to remembering the people who created here forty years ago,” revealed KVMT director Goda Giedraitytė.
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And the first three premieres are just the beginning of what theatergoers will see in 2026–2027. “In November, we will invite you to see the chamber musical performance ‘Sand Chaconne’ and a dance triptych ‘Fire Inside’ created by some of the most famous foreign choreographers. In spring, the opera ‘Carmen’ by Georges Bizet, which gathered a large international team, will be presented, along with dance projects dedicated to International Dance Day. Alongside these novelties, concerts and symphonic meetings revolving around the composer Ludwig van Beethoven, who died 200 years ago, await. And we will end the season with an opera for children about a talking cheese. But all about that – in other meetings. For now – the upcoming premieres,” said G. Giedraitytė.
Instruments will speak with animal voices
On September 16 and 17, the first new event of the season will invite families to the theater – the world-famous French composer Camille Saint-Saëns’ ‘Carnival of the Animals’ will come to life on stage. One of the most charming classical music pieces will transport the audience to a world where musical instruments become the voices and characters of animals. According to the director Evelina Šimelionė, young viewers and their parents can expect a cozy, playful, and at the same time educational experience.
“C. Saint-Saëns created ‘Carnival of the Animals’ as a musical joke – he did not consider it serious and did not even want it to be performed publicly. We tried to maintain this warm, playful mood together with conductor Tomas Ambrozaicius and the entire creative team,” said the director.
According to her, two narrators will help the piece, which has no libretto, to sound even more expressive by humorously revealing the whole story of the carnival of animals. “The audience will not only hear the incredibly colorful music of C. Saint-Saëns – the characters and visual solutions of the performance will also delight with colors. The audience will be able to see the participants of the cheerful procession and the instruments embodying them from very close – comfortably and softly seated,” promised E. Šimelionė.
The not yet shown ‘Carnival of the Animals’ has attracted great attention – tickets for the September and October performances are already sold out. Tickets are still available for the December performances.
Megs creative dialogue with the past
The second premiere of the jubilee KVMT season will welcome viewers on September 23 and 24. For the first time in Klaipėda, the imaginary M.K. Čiurlionis opera ‘Jūratė’ will be presented – a work the composer never managed to complete.
The legendary love story of Jūratė and Kastytis is reborn in this production by combining historical heritage, contemporary music, and computer technologies. Three contemporary composers invited by ‘Operomania’ took on this unique project: Mantautas Krukauskas, Arvydas Malcys, and Mykolas Natalevičius.
“Returning from Vilnius to Klaipėda, I kept thinking: in Konstantinas’ letters to his beloved Sofija, it was recorded that when they met in Palanga, they fantasized about how ‘Jūratė’ might sound. Symbolic. The Klaipėda ‘Jūratė’ will become a kind of transfer to the beginning of creative inspiration. However, this work is not a reconstruction of the past, rather – a dialogue with what has remained,” said the director of the imaginary opera Gintarė Radvilavičiūtė.
Having first sounded on the stage of the Old Theater in Vilnius in 2025, ‘Jūratė’ will shine with new colors for the port city’s audience. “The work will be performed with a larger composition of the Klaipėda State Musical Theater symphony orchestra and choir. Such a scale will reveal the opera even more multilayered. Moreover, a new edition of the score prepared for the port city is still being corrected and improved by the composers. I myself am eager to hear the final result,” said G. Radvilavičiūtė.
An historic premiere awaits
Authentic Baroque productions remain rare and almost exotic phenomena in Lithuanian theater repertoires. KVMT will more than fill this gap, aiming to infect the audience with the true Baroque virus – on October 9, 10, and 13, the theater will host an exceptional premiere – for the first time in the country’s history, one of the most prominent operas by George Frideric Handel, ‘Julius Caesar’ (based on the libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym), will be revived in a historically informed production that will be included in the theater’s repertoire.
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According to the production director Tristan Braun (Germany), the audience will hear a multilayered work that is very relevant to us and our times due to boiling political passions, the premonition of a world falling to pieces, and both personal and global characters’ experiences. The multilayeredness and diversity of the work were also emphasized by conductor Rodrig Calveyra (Brazil / France), who also revealed that this opera features an extremely close connection between text and music.
“Moreover, this work, popular both then and now, is full of ‘hits’. Listening to ‘Julius Caesar’, you will recognize more than one aria,” said the conductor.
To let the audience experience the true passion and luxury of 18th-century opera, the theater is gathering international forces. The performance will feature authentic historical instruments – Baroque harp, viola da gamba, theorbo, lute, ancient oboes and bassoons, joined by performers from the early music ensemble ‘Canto Fiorito’, the Klaipėda Concert Hall Chamber Orchestra, and the KVMT ballet troupe.
The main role of Julius Caesar in the opera will be performed by internationally acclaimed countertenor Christopher Lowrey (USA / UK), alongside Lina Dambrauskaitė, Renata Dubinskaitė, Ivo Posti (Estonia), and KVMT performers Vilius Trakys and Wiktoria Wizner (Poland).
Mindaugas Bačkus, head of the Klaipėda Concert Hall Chamber Orchestra, considers this collaboration of several institutions an extraordinary event. “Cooperation is not as simple as it may seem at first glance. This cooperation is already a real fact, not an idea that has settled in meeting rooms. Real connections are created when organizations stop fearing competition. To stop fearing is a higher stage of human development. Today, a small miracle is happening in historical, social, and cultural terms,” shared M. Bačkus.
Participation in international projects
The last new event of the upcoming jubilee KVMT season – from September 11, 2026, to March 11, 2027, the dance performance for children ‘Panama is Very Beautiful’, created by Daria Verovka and Silvia Miliūnaitė, can be seen by theater lovers worldwide on the international platform ‘OperaVision’.
“What is visible to everyone is just the tip of the iceberg. This large project has been prepared for many years,” rejoiced KVMT chief advisor Audronė Juozauskaitė about the achieved results.
The creators of the ‘OperaVision’ platform are the international association ‘Opera Europa’, which unites professional European opera and musical theaters and festival organizers. KVMT has been a member for seven years. “We are part of the family of musical theaters, actively participate in events, share experiences, learn from colleagues, use all ‘Opera Europa’ platforms, and join international programs,” listed the chief advisor the benefits.
One of them is the platform ‘Next Generation’, funded by the European Commission’s ‘Creative Europe’ program, aimed at supporting the professional growth of young opera and dance artists, international cooperation, and creating new career opportunities. KVMT has joined this program, and young dancers of the international ballet troupe participate in it together with debuting choreographer D. Verovka.
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