An interview with director Ilaria Lanzino.

History teaches us that Attila the Hun was a fearsome military leader, a ruthless and organised conqueror, the ‘scourge of God!’ Yet, in this opera, Attila is prey to wild dreams and victim of a priest in a white robe...

After 160 years and countless adaptations, The Flying Dutchman finally returned to the shores of the stormy sea in which the idea for the opera first occurred to Wagner. In August 2020, the Klaipėda State Music Theatre staged the very first production of the opera in Lithuania. The project could not have been more ambitious and has been hailed as one of the country’s most celebrated cultural events of the year.

Manon’s unique path in life could not be more alien to the strict social expectations placed on the women of her time. Already at the age of sixteen, she breaks free from the sheltered life mapped out for her and flees on her way to the convent with the handsome Chevalier Des Grieux. Despite her genuine love for him, she ends up leaving him for a life of wealth and luxury only to rekindle her relationship with him later.

The Magic Flute is often presented as a fairy tale about finding one’s way through the opposing forces of Good and Evil. Mozart’s last opera relates the trials and tribulations of two opposing yet complementary couples - Tamino and Pamina and Papageno and Papagena - who, in their search for love, journey through darkness to reach light and happiness.