Klaipėda State Music Theatre
Klaipėda State Music Theatre (KSMT) is the largest professional performing arts institution not only in Klaipėda but also in the western region of Lithuania. It was established in 1987. Over more than three decades, the theatre has produced well over a hundred stage works in various genres, including operas, music dramas, operettas, musicals, ballets, contemporary dance performances, and musical performances for kids. Besides serving as a testing ground for the fresh talent, KSMT often recruits acclaimed theatre artists and international production teams. The theatre now has a personnel of over 200, including opera soloists, a mixed choir, a ballet company, a symphony orchestra, administration, front of house staff and production services.
Each season, the theatre offers a calendar packed with performances, 2–4 premieres of new productions, concerts and tours in towns of the coastal region and major venues around Lithuania. In summer 2020, KSMT mounted an extraordinary production of Richard Wagner’s Flying Dutchman - streamed on OperaVision in 2021 - at the site of the historic Paul Willy Lindenau Shipyard in Klaipėda. Hailed as one of the country’s most celebrated cultural events of the year, it sparked the idea of launching a new annual summer festival for opera and classical music in Klaipėda and using the scenic location as its open-air stage. The Klaipėda Festival was inaugurated in summer 2021.
Starting in 2018, the theatre implemented a major modernisation and construction project. It aimed to retain original post-war elements in the architecture of the administration building, while the newly built section, designed by the team of architects from the German “studioGA” and the Lithuanian company “Inžinerinė mintis” now has impressively decorated lobbies, the Sea Hall with uniquely clay-plastered walls and an audience capacity of 732 and the Lagoon Hall of 164, as well as fully equipped underground dressing and rehearsal rooms, dance studios, and costume and props storage spaces. The new building was inaugurated with the grand opening gala night on 20 April 2024 to become the first music theatre built in Lithuania in thirty-four years of its re-established independence.
Currently comprising 23 dancers, the Klaipėda ballet company is not a large group compared to dance companies in other European cities of a similar size. It is also very young and constantly changing but nonetheless extremely dynamic and rapidly developing. It is no secret that it draws vitality and creative synergy from the melting pot of different cultures, schools, mentalities, and artistic ambitions, which has been just boiling over in the past few years! More than half of its members are young Ukrainian dancers who have recently graduated or are continuing their studies remotely at the Kyiv Municipal Serge Lifar Dance Academy. The other half consists of dancers from Italy, Spain, France, Brasil, Japan, as well as dancers from the Ballet and Contemporary Dance Department of the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art in Vilnius and the Faculty of Arts of the Klaipėda University. The company went on to collaborate with internationally renowned choreographers in producing the revivals of their earlier works, including Edward Clug's Stabat Mater and Le sacre du printemps, Robert Bondara's Hiccup and 8m68, and Alexander Ekman's Cacti. Slovenian choreographer Gaj Žmavc has served as its Artistic Director since October 2023.
