Page 171 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2019. Vloga nacionalnih opernih gledališč v 20. in 21. stoletju - The Role of National Opera Houses in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 3
P. 171
opera without theatre
hybrid forms that have proliferated for a long time in all artistic fields. NOA
brings to opera the sensitivity and the look on its epoch and, inevitably, the
new technologies. It talks about inner experiences, parallel worlds, tales,
the history of Lithuania, the work field, and so on. NOA does not necessar-
ily seek professionalism, or accuracy and perfection of interpretation. The
participants are more interested in the link between matter and emotions.
The first NOA festival in 2008 was actually an ‘action on stage’, in
which the most important thing was free expression, and not the expres-
sion of something perfectly elaborate in musical terms. Since then, young
creators have been developing their ideas in several directions. Firstly, the
genre of opera itself is reconsidered:
– There is a strong social commitment (for example, the socio-mu-
sical reality in the Lina Lapelyte’s opera Have a Good Day (2011),
which is about the daily life of cashiers in supermarkets)
– And there is also a search for certain limits of the genre (for ex-
ample, the Rūta Vitkauskaite’s &co. acousmatic opera Confessions
(2011), which is performed in the dark to awaken other senses).
Secondly, the concept of current music is expanded:
– For example, through mini or nano operas, which could be con-
sidered as exercises of style with imposed constraints (for exam-
ple, all the NOA festival of 2012)
– Or through the use of new technologies, video, video games, an-
imation, etc ... (for example, the Tadas Dailyda Audiovisual pro-
ject based on music of video games Consolium 3000 (2015)).
From “Opera Space” to “Space for Opera”
Opera is usually a slow and heavy body. The small formats offered by NOA
are first and foremost conducive to experimentation and innovation. At the
beginning of the twentieth century, Schoenberg renewed the genre by com-
posing monodramas which he himself called “mini-operas”18. Finally, let
us remember that modern dance also began to innovate by shortening du-
ration: a series of short ballets instead of a single long ballet that took the
whole evening.
Short or very short operas such as nano operas make it easier to test
and renew ideas and their components. We note the individualization
18 Arnold Schoenberg, Le style et l’idée (Paris: Buchet/Chastel, 1977), 87.
169
hybrid forms that have proliferated for a long time in all artistic fields. NOA
brings to opera the sensitivity and the look on its epoch and, inevitably, the
new technologies. It talks about inner experiences, parallel worlds, tales,
the history of Lithuania, the work field, and so on. NOA does not necessar-
ily seek professionalism, or accuracy and perfection of interpretation. The
participants are more interested in the link between matter and emotions.
The first NOA festival in 2008 was actually an ‘action on stage’, in
which the most important thing was free expression, and not the expres-
sion of something perfectly elaborate in musical terms. Since then, young
creators have been developing their ideas in several directions. Firstly, the
genre of opera itself is reconsidered:
– There is a strong social commitment (for example, the socio-mu-
sical reality in the Lina Lapelyte’s opera Have a Good Day (2011),
which is about the daily life of cashiers in supermarkets)
– And there is also a search for certain limits of the genre (for ex-
ample, the Rūta Vitkauskaite’s &co. acousmatic opera Confessions
(2011), which is performed in the dark to awaken other senses).
Secondly, the concept of current music is expanded:
– For example, through mini or nano operas, which could be con-
sidered as exercises of style with imposed constraints (for exam-
ple, all the NOA festival of 2012)
– Or through the use of new technologies, video, video games, an-
imation, etc ... (for example, the Tadas Dailyda Audiovisual pro-
ject based on music of video games Consolium 3000 (2015)).
From “Opera Space” to “Space for Opera”
Opera is usually a slow and heavy body. The small formats offered by NOA
are first and foremost conducive to experimentation and innovation. At the
beginning of the twentieth century, Schoenberg renewed the genre by com-
posing monodramas which he himself called “mini-operas”18. Finally, let
us remember that modern dance also began to innovate by shortening du-
ration: a series of short ballets instead of a single long ballet that took the
whole evening.
Short or very short operas such as nano operas make it easier to test
and renew ideas and their components. We note the individualization
18 Arnold Schoenberg, Le style et l’idée (Paris: Buchet/Chastel, 1977), 87.
169
