“Jaunas kaip Vilnius”: luxury, alternative and music art copies | Culture

However, this time I was tempted by the festival “Jaunas kaip Vilnius”, held for the third time, on July 25. shaking (as announced in the press releases of the organizers) Vingios Park with a “promising cocktail” mixed with popular and classical music, artistic installations, educational activities about sustainability, various snacks and other attributes typical of mass events.

As a novelty this year, the Youth Stage was introduced, dedicated to independent and young artists, which intrigued the most. All this was a gift to Vilnius residents and city guests on the occasion of the 701st birthday of Vilnius.

Maybe it’s naive, but going to the birthday of the city of Vilnius, I expected at least a slightly more conceptual understanding of the name or history of the city of Vilnius, as an example, remembering some of the events of the 700th birthday of Vilnius held a year ago or the exhibitions currently taking place in other contexts. Unfortunately, I found a copy of the two-part LRT show on the Main Stage and a small but quite cozy party on the separate Youth Stage.

The whole event was crowned by the performance of the British artist Rita Ora. The only found allusion to the city of Vilnius was the rather incoherent and isolated attempts of one of the Joneiki brothers (from the group “Garbanots”) to reflect the baroque faces of Vilnius, connecting them with the faces seen in the audience.

In other words, in this Vilnius birthday fiesta, there is no smell of Vilnius itself.

The attempts of Gabriele Martirosian and Igna Krupavičius, the presenters of both concerts on the Main Stage, were quite confusing. to start audience waiting for Rita Ora’s performance – for example, chanting encouragements Lithuania! it looked quite comical, unconsciously it even reminded Lithuania of the then Speaker of the Seimas Violeta Graužinienė’s confusion between syllables, which happened at the event of the restoration of Lithuania’s Independence. In other words, in this Vilnius birthday fiesta, there is no smell of Vilnius itself.

Well, let’s get back to the content of the artistic event and, first of all, the Youth Stage that started the Vilnius birthday celebration. In it, located in a small space near the “Tree of Unity” sculpture near Vingis Park, duets “Baltos varnos”, “Kyla vējas!”, “Superkoloritas”, solo artists Lukas Pilkauskas, Pijus Opera, “Kabloonak”, dj nevykele performed one after the other. , the bands “Katarsis” and “Shower”. Some of them are just starting their musical journey, others already have their own circle of listeners.

Personal album photo/Group “Shower”

Although the start of “Jaunas kaip Vilnius” was marked by heavy rain, the party of the alternative Youth scene, delicately started with always original interpretations of folklore melodies by the fascinating “Balti varna” and ended by “Shower”, which became famous in “Eurovision”, gradually got going. And although sometimes it seemed that it was time for some young performers to change the harmonic functions or simply to look for more dynamic musical solutions, to experiment more, it was true sincerity, youthful melancholy, direct communication with the audience and, most importantly, the search for original creative expression, but always ripe, bribed.

On the way to the Main Stage, art installations greeted us. It is true that only two of them were created by artists – Pijaus Šematulskis-Duonas and Pijaus Čeikauskas-Pidžinas “Garbage Doesn’t Grow on Trees” and “Eyes” by Ray Bartkaus, an artist living in the USA. The installations did not leave an impression – only the idea of ​​creating them from waste and the “Jaunas kaip Vilnius” initiative and the invitation to contribute to the vision of a sustainable city made sense. The airline company “Airbaltic”, the Vilnius municipality company “JUDU” (it’s a pity that the music group “Judu” was not invited to the alternative stage on that occasion), UAB “Vilniaus elektis” and other Vilnius municipality companies also found space to advertise themselves under the umbrella of sustainability and improvised installations. .

In the first part of the main stage, the symphony orchestra of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater, conducted by Ričardas Šumilas, and famous classical music performers – Merūnas Vitulskis, Gabrielė Kupšytė (it was not unnoticed that in the screensavers she is shamefully called Kupštyte), Lina Dambrauskaitė, Tadas Girininkas and their performances the most famous opera arias. Everyone here did their job well, revealing their best – M.Vitulskis was charming with his emotionality, Tadas Girininkas – with his mature performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera arias, L.Dambrauskaitė flirted quite impressively with the orchestra with coloraturas, and the rising opera star Gabrielė Kupšytė was charming with her wonderful voice. timbre and a deep, non-superficial sense of music. However, there were no unexpected opera interpretations as promised – the only surprise was the duo of Irena Milkevičiūtė and the young Teodoros Lipčias, who started the Main Stage program, performing George Friedrich Handel’s famous aria “Lascia ch’io pianga” from the opera “Rinaldas”.

Skirmantas Lisauskas /15min photo/Lina Dambrauskaitė

The super hits of the opera world continued – arias and duets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Georges Bizet, Jules Massenet and other composers. Probably, one should not expect anything else in an event of this format, but still such a decorative presentation of classical music, with famous names and an orchestra of a prestigious institution as if guaranteeing luxury and quality by itself, does not convey the essence and values ​​of classical music culture. Therefore, classical music in this context acted more as a social symbol than an artistic phenomenon.

Some of the educational interjections of the already mentioned concert presenters appeared strange – for example, the out-of-context linking of G. Verdi’s “Traviata” as a national Lithuanian opera with the modern history of Lithuanian music (or something similar) sounded quite comical, as, by the way, did the choice of the concert by the organizers of the program end with the famous duet of this opera “Brindisi”. Just then, walking towards the “Youth Stage”, I considered what “Superkoloritas” and “Traviata” have in common. And although I am more fascinated by the lyrics of “Superkolorito” than the music, I have come to the conclusion that in this context (despite the stylistic features of course), the biggest difference is the social status, which is established by the listening rituals of both. Is it really worth separating them in such an event, which, according to the organizers, is aimed at communion – let it be a rhetorical question.

The decorative concert of the most famous opera numbers was followed by a popular music program, in which unexpected duets of performers from the Lithuanian popular music scene appeared, accompanied by the LNOBT symphony orchestra, the rhythm group and the Vilnius JJ Ensemble brass band. Unfortunately, this part didn’t surprise anything either – only the combinations of the performers’ names were unexpected. Well-known hits of popular music were performed in a very orderly, almost operatic style (more stage costumes and performers’ movements on stage, but not singing techniques), such as “69 in the Sky”, “Skrisim”, “Naktinių personsų” “Kai ušekaii zavaldo žešų”, Vytautas Kernagis songs and original old and new songs of the artists who sang.

The interpretations (both the arrangements and their implementation) didn’t sound new or interesting, they just repeated the original versions of the songs, and the proud Gamka or Rokas Yan looked better than they sang. Only Monika Pundžiūtė-Monique and “Garbanotas” left a greater impression, performing the good old “Matisse” song “I want to scream”. The duo was not too lazy to add a bit of themselves to the piece, so it sounded sensitive and original. Silverster Belt, who did not spare energy and radiated sincerity, remained more vivid in the memory.

Skirmantas Lisauskas / BNS/Silvester Belt

Well, the famous Rita Ora ended Vilnius’s birthday – she performed her program according to the phonogram well, and even sang “Happy Birthday to You” for Vilnius.

Despite the rain and the large audience, there was no doubt that such an event has its own audience, or in other words, it has a demand (because the audience could also be random, looking for free entertainment). On the other hand, it is worth rhetorically considering whether the audience would be smaller if the program of the event was different, for example, costing much less. It is gratifying that this time the main focus is on music – integrated classics, focused on the alternative, separated from the meaningless speeches of politicians. But the extremely decorative presentation of the same classics or symphony orchestra, focusing on famous names but not the content, juggling not only famous names, but also cultural and social symbols is saddening. This “gift” is for taxpayers’ money, so it’s worth looking at the teeth of the gifted horse.

What is fancy is not necessarily what is interesting, and what classical composers created is not necessarily what is still a classic when transferred to another context. Not necessarily an event where classical, pop and alternative sounds more like social symbols than works of art, broadens the audience of listeners or fuses different cultures. And not necessarily accurate and high-quality reproduction is art. In this context, Pius Opera was better than opera for me, he created his rap in the here and now, from the things the audience gave him on stage. Because what’s interesting is what works naturally; in the environment in which, by nature, it must operate.