Page 173 - 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
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opera without theatre
for young opera singers, Vilnius opera studio (Vilniaus operos
studija),
– He also organized the Baroque opera workshops in a provincial
Lithuanian town (Kražiai) in 2013,
– In 2015 he initiated the M-FEST festival of short musicals, and
– In 2016 he was appointed Director of the Klaipeda State Musical
Theatre (Klaipėdos valstybinis muzikinis teatras) in the third larg-
est city in Lithuania.
Arriving in Klaipeda, he said he wanted to “blow up the theatre” (but
not set it on fire anyway, as Boulez stated), but over time, he acknowledged,
“it is very difficult to change everything, and you get discouraged. I im-
agined that everything was possible, but I came down to earth, and am
much more pragmatic now” 19.
The classical opera theatre works, if one can make such a comparison,
as an old family business that is handed down from generation to genera-
tion, undergoes reforms, adapts to new processes, but does not change fun-
damentally. Conversely, the start-up model makes it possible to work the
opera genre as a living organism: the start-up does not need owned walls,
it can start as a tenant or even in the ‘family garage’; With little means and
little space, an idea is developed, and if the environment allows for it, it be-
comes institutionalized and adapts the physical space to its needs, and not
the other way around. Inventions happen outside the walls, and once the
ideas work, they can be adopted, most of the time, by larger structures.
They can therefore extend within the walls of the opera theatre, which has
always needed fresh blood.
This makes it possible to say that the activity of Jonas Sakalauskas, in
the field of opera, is more like the model of a start-up, with the multiplica-
tion of directions and forms of activities, collective inventions, or struc-
tures with little or no hierarchy. This corresponds to what science journal-
ist Laure Cailloce summed up in the start-up spirit: “More than age, it is
actually the way of working which defines the start-up: a certain sponta-
19 Monika Svėrytė, “Teatro vadovas, “El Fuego” narys Jonas Sakalauskas apie meilę
Klaipėdai ir sulaužytus principus”, 15min.lt, 24.09.2017. Accessed 20.11.2017,
https://www.15min.lt/vardai/naujiena/lietuva/pajuryje-isikures-jonas-sakalaus-
kas-apie-meile-klaipedai-teatro-uzkulisius-ir-sulauzytus-principus-1050-810948#.Wn-
rBTF8N99o.facebook.
171
for young opera singers, Vilnius opera studio (Vilniaus operos
studija),
– He also organized the Baroque opera workshops in a provincial
Lithuanian town (Kražiai) in 2013,
– In 2015 he initiated the M-FEST festival of short musicals, and
– In 2016 he was appointed Director of the Klaipeda State Musical
Theatre (Klaipėdos valstybinis muzikinis teatras) in the third larg-
est city in Lithuania.
Arriving in Klaipeda, he said he wanted to “blow up the theatre” (but
not set it on fire anyway, as Boulez stated), but over time, he acknowledged,
“it is very difficult to change everything, and you get discouraged. I im-
agined that everything was possible, but I came down to earth, and am
much more pragmatic now” 19.
The classical opera theatre works, if one can make such a comparison,
as an old family business that is handed down from generation to genera-
tion, undergoes reforms, adapts to new processes, but does not change fun-
damentally. Conversely, the start-up model makes it possible to work the
opera genre as a living organism: the start-up does not need owned walls,
it can start as a tenant or even in the ‘family garage’; With little means and
little space, an idea is developed, and if the environment allows for it, it be-
comes institutionalized and adapts the physical space to its needs, and not
the other way around. Inventions happen outside the walls, and once the
ideas work, they can be adopted, most of the time, by larger structures.
They can therefore extend within the walls of the opera theatre, which has
always needed fresh blood.
This makes it possible to say that the activity of Jonas Sakalauskas, in
the field of opera, is more like the model of a start-up, with the multiplica-
tion of directions and forms of activities, collective inventions, or struc-
tures with little or no hierarchy. This corresponds to what science journal-
ist Laure Cailloce summed up in the start-up spirit: “More than age, it is
actually the way of working which defines the start-up: a certain sponta-
19 Monika Svėrytė, “Teatro vadovas, “El Fuego” narys Jonas Sakalauskas apie meilę
Klaipėdai ir sulaužytus principus”, 15min.lt, 24.09.2017. Accessed 20.11.2017,
https://www.15min.lt/vardai/naujiena/lietuva/pajuryje-isikures-jonas-sakalaus-
kas-apie-meile-klaipedai-teatro-uzkulisius-ir-sulauzytus-principus-1050-810948#.Wn-
rBTF8N99o.facebook.
171
