Kostas Smoriginas News
Lithuanian theatre and cinema actor and musician
- bass-baritone
- Lithuania, Soviet Union
- actor, performing artist, musician
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2024-04-25
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2024-04-06 11:15:00
Bizet's Carmen at Covent Garden: gritty realism & a reluctance to add any local colour & movement, redeemed by musical performances
Bizet: Carmen, Act One - Blaise Malaba, Aighul Akhmetshina - Royal Opera House (Photo: ROH/Camilla Greenwell)Bizet: Carmen; Aigul Akhmetshina, Piortr Beczala, Olga Kulchynska, Kostas Smoriginas, director: Damiano Michieletto, conductor: Antonello Manacorda; Royal OperaReviewed 5 April 2024The new production pairs finely musical performances with a sense of gritty realism and a reluctance to add any local colour and movement.For all its iconic status and abundance of good tunes, Bizet's Carmen remains something of a challenge for large opera companies. Until relatively recently matters of edition and style were unquestioning, the grand opera version with Ernest Guiraud's recitatives and a setting that was 'traditional 19th-century Spain'. Since then, things have got more complex with a return to using the opera comique version and a wish to avoid the lazy stage-Spanish stereo-types. It is worth emphasising that the Bizet's opera has little Spanish input, composer, librettists and original author were all French men. And whilst the […]
2018-06-14 19:57:17
Anglais - Outstanding Musical Credentials Create an Enchanting Lohengrin at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
[…] equal skill. Klaus Florian Vogt in the title role reveals a beautifully clean tenor, especially in his Act III monologue ‘In fernem Land’, while Jennifer Davis, replacing a previously advertised Kristine Opolais, is splendid as Elsa, displaying a freshness in her soprano that is lacking in many assumptions of the role. Thomas Johannes Mayer has a strong baritone and suitably malevolent presence as Telramund, Georg Zeppenfeld reveals a magnificent bass as King Heinrich and Kostas Smoriginas a splendid bass-baritone as the Herald. If there is a first among equals, however, it is Christine Goerke whose soprano and portrayal of Ortrud are both simply exhilarating. By Sam Smith Lohengrin | 7 June – 1 July 2018 | Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
2018-06-11 19:16:00
Lohengrin, Royal Opera, 7 June 2018
Royal Opera House Images: Clive Barda King Henry the Fowler – Georg Zeppenfeld Lohengrin – Klaus Florian Vogt Elsa – Jennifer Davis Friedrich von Telramund – Thomas Johannes Mayer Ortrud – Christine Goerke King’s Herald – Kostas Smoriginas Brabantian Nobles – Konu Kim, Thomas Atkins, Gyula Nagy, Simon Shibambu Pages – Katy Batho, Deborah Peake-Jones, Dervla Ramsay, Louise Armit Gottfried – Michael Curtis David Alden (director) Paul Steinberg (set designs) Gideon Davey (costumes) Adam Silverman (lighting) Tal Rosner (video) Maxine Braham (movement) Royal Opera Chorus and Extra Chorus (chorus director: William Spaulding) Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Andris Nelsons (conductor) Elsa (Jennifer Davis) at her wedding Since returning to London in January, I have been heartened by much of what I have seen – and indeed heard – from the Royal Opera. If Barrie Kosky’s Carmen proved something […]
2018-06-11 15:35:23
Musical beauty: new production of Lohengrin at Covent Garden
[…] which could hardly have been expected to last so long. Whereas Moshinsky took a semi-abstract neo-pagan approach, Alden has set his in the context of a fairly specific place and time in the early to mid 20th century.We caught the second performance, on Sunday 10 June 2018, with Klaus Florian Vogt as Lohengrin, Jennifer Davis as Elsa, Thomas J Mayer as Friedrich von Telramund, Christine Goerke as Ortrud, Georg Zeppenfeld as King Heinrich and Kostas Smoriginas as the Herald. Sets were by Paul Steinberg, costumes by Gideon Davey, lighting by Adam Silverman, video by Tal Rosner and movement by Maxine Braham. Andris Nelsons conducted. From the opening notes of the prelude (played with the curtain down), it was clear that Andris Nelsons' way with the score was going to be something special. He drew ravishing textures from the orchestra, creating moments of great beauty and real transparency. Even the […]
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