The romantic and awe-inspiring “Sunset Serenade” will make a splendid closing highlight of the Klaipėda Concert Hall’s season 2018/2019. In this concert the Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra under the artistic direction of Mindaugas Bačkus will share the stage, for the first time, with Justina Gringytė – one of the most gifted and internationally acclaimed Lithuanian mezzo-sopranos of our time. The Opera Awards Foundation named her Young Singer of the Year 2015. She is hailed for her “knockout technique” by The Times. She captivated the classical press in the title role of Carmen for both English National Opera and Scottish Opera. With a voice that is “steel clad, hotly phrased, superbly controlled” (The Guardian), she “commands the stage, alternately spitting out or sliding deliciously around in her vocal lines, imperious one minute and fragile the next” (The Scotsman).

Gringytė also appeared as Carmen and later as Romeo (in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi) in the productions of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius. She recently sang Dalila in the production of Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila by the Vilnius City Opera, among many other important role and house debuts.
On the stage of the Klaipėda Concert Hall the charming soloist will join the Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra in the performance of Benjamin Britten’s Baroque-inspired cantata Phaedra, which happens to be the composer’s last vocal work, and one of Ottorino Respighi’s greatest vocal masterpieces for mezzo-soprano and string orchestra – Il tramonto set to the poem by P. B. Shelley “The Sunset” – which resembles a small-scale opera. The orchestra alone will contribute to the programme by playing the Serenade for Strings by Edward Elgar and some romantic pieces by Lithuanian composer Balys Dvarionas.

Thus the “Sunset Serenade” will close the season in the anticipation of many warm and sunny summer days and exciting night concerts at the Park Stage of the Klaipėda Concert Hall. So instead of “farewell”, we say “see you soon there”!

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Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra
Artistic Director Mindaugas Bačkus
Soloist Justina Gringytė (mezzo-soprano)
Programme: Ottorino Respighi, Edward Elgar, Benjamin Britten, Balys Dvarionas