8 and 9 September, 5 pm
Palace of the Grand Dukes, Katedros a. 4, Vilnius
Il ratto di Helena
Opera, first performed 1636 in Vilnius, libretto by Virgilio Puccitelli
Composer and conductor: Marco Vitale (Italy)
Dramaturgy: Adrián Schvarzstein (Spain)
Director: Claudio Levati (Spain)
Assistant director and choreographer: Jūratė Širvytė-Rukštelė
Costume designer: Marija Rubavičiūtė
Lighting designer: Audrius Jankauskas
PERFORMERS
- Helena, Queen of Sparta: Rūta Vosyliūtė – soprano
- Paride, son of King Priam of Troy: Carlos Monteiro – tenor (Portugal)
- Giunone: Ewa Leszczyńska – soprano (Poland)
- Amore: Magdalena Czarnecka – soprano (Poland)
- Menelao: Viktoras Gerasimovas – countertenor
- Aetra: Nora Petročenko – soprano
- Agenore, Marte: Radosław Pachołek – countertenor (Poland)
- Creonte, Apollo: Robert Pożarski – tenor (Poland)
- Nettuno, Giove: Nerijus Masevičius – bass
- Filandro, Toante: Łukasz Hajduczenia – bass (Poland)
- Cabaret owner: Claudio Levati
- Cabaret hostess: Jūratė Širvytė-Rukštelė
The Royal Choir and Orchestra of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth KORONA (Lithuania, Poland, Italy, Spain, Germany, Mexico)
- CHOIR
Furie, Ninfe: Ieva Gaidamavičiūtė-Barkauskė, Edita Bagdonaitė-Venislovienė, Justina Orlovskytė – sopranos
Nuntio: Mindaugas Bargaila – tenor
Saulius Laurinaitis – tenor
Artūras Miknaitis, Mykolas Treščenkinas – basses
Choirmaster: Gintautas Venislovas - ORCHESTRA
Ieva Baublytė, Tomasz Dobrzański – recorders
Enrique Gómez-Cabrero Fernández, Judyta Tupczyńska-Wrona – violins
Elżbieta Górka, Dymitr Olszewski – violas
Darius Stabinskas – cello
Justyna Rekść-Raubo – viola da gamba
Martin Daniel Zorzano – violone
Adam Nowakowski – theorbo
Alina Rotaru, Marco Vitale – harpsichords
In September 1636, the very first opera production, ''Il ratto di Helena'' was staged in Vilnius in the palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. Its libretto, fresh from the printing house of the Vilnius University, was published in 1636, and was written by the Secretary of the State Virgillio Puccitelli (1594–1654), who was also a famous writer. Full of mythological elements, as it was the fashion of the time, the story is about Helen of Troy. The music is believed to belong to the head of the Royal Chapel, well-known composer and music theoretician Marco Scacchi (c.1600–1662). As the rest of the eleven operas written by him, none of them survived up to this day.
Celebrating Lithuania's centenary, Italian harpsichordist and composer Marco Vitale researched into the various stylistic sources for composition, counterpoint and performance practice of the time, and created a new musical score on the surviving Vilnius libretto.
Project is organised by the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, public institution “Banchetto Musicale” and foundation „f.o.r.t.e.“.
Project is partly financed by Lithuanian Culture Council and Ministry of Culture of Lithuania.
“Korona 2018 (within 8th Flying Academy of Culture)” project is supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
Project partner: Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Cinema Museum.
