Sun&Sea (Marina) An Opera-Performance
… by three Lithuanian artists; One of them Rugilė Barzdiukaitė, who stood for the direction and scenography, was to kind to invite me knowing my enthusiasm for art and culture in her country. The texts were made by Vaiva Grainytė, translated from Lithuanian by Rimas Ugiris and the Music and musical direction by Lina Lapelytė.
It’s a one hour show where (in Copenhagen) we the audience were “watching from scaffolding above the stage, looking down on a sandy beach, complete with sunbathing visitors, a mosaic of towels, bright bathing suits, and plastic toys.” A quote from the website of the CC, Copenhagen Contemporary, where you may also find the libretto, song by the opera singers lying on the beach – here is the link:
Yes, from above, lovely, joyful making us remember our behaviour when at the beach with children, with playing badminton, building sand castles, talking, caressing…
Here are some few words from the libretto:
”Hand it here, I need to rub my legs…‘Cause later they’ll peel and crack, And chap.Hand it I will rub you… Otherwise, you’ll be red as a lobster…Hand it I will rub you…”
”What a sky, just look, so clear!Not a single cloud…What is there? – seagulls or terns?I can never tell… O la vida, la vida”
”What’s wrong with people – they come here with their dogs, who leave shit on the beach, fleas on the sand!…”
”I flew to a Portuguese corrida –A short trip, just for fun.But then the pilot had to land the plane in London:So I called up my friends. And stayed over for a couple of days. And from that day on, Linda and I never been apart.”
The libretto is wonderful – I sang it for my wife this morning (!), the whole performance is amazing. I asked Rugilė afterwards if it was hard for the singers/actors, especially the kids. No, she said, the kids are the survivors, they find new games. When I was there there were 4 shows in a row, no problem the director said but we have had 8 in a row… The opera-performance won at the biennale in Venice.
Yes, the Lithuanians know how to surprise and make poetry out of something ordinary, going to the beach that we aill all do very soon.
PS. I knew Rugilė Barzdiukaitė from her – also original – multilayered documentary “Acid Forest” that I praised here
http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4379/
