Media opera ČIURLIONIS: I SEE MUSIC
Čiurlionis: I See Music is a media opera—a contemporary fairy tale without words based on the works of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, in which music, image, and light merge into a unified dramaturgical journey. The creators of the production are Audronė Žigaitytė and Mantas Bartusevičius.
The visual dramaturgy of the media opera incorporates more than 200 paintings by M. K. Čiurlionis. These works form a constantly changing spatial structure and become an active part of the artistic narrative. The musical fabric of the production is woven from Čiurlionis’s compositions of various genres.
The structure of the opera is built upon a gradual journey through elements and states of being—from the primordial spring and the depths of the forest to cosmic visions and the horizon of the sea. The symbolic figure of the narrative is the mythological grass snake, perceived here not as a character but as a principle of movement, transformation, and life itself—a line, a curve, a pulse of light guiding the audience through Čiurlionis’s unique worldview.
The musical score encompasses works from different genres of Čiurlionis’s oeuvre. The performance features the Lithuanian folk song Sutems tamsi naktužėlė, harmonised by Čiurlionis and performed by the Vilnius Sacred Music Choir Adoramus. The chamber dimension is continued by the first movement of the String Quartet, orchestrated by Vilhelmas Čepinskis and performed by the Šiauliai Chamber Orchestra Soliaris under the baton of the arranger himself. A symphonic scale is created through fragments of the symphonic poems In the Forest and The Sea, as well as the cantata De Profundis, performed by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and the Kaunas State Choir (Artistic Director Petras Bingelis), conducted by Juozas Domarkas.
Čiurlionis: I See Music invites the audience not merely to observe but to experience—to listen to movement, light, and sound, through which the living and ever-changing world of Čiurlionis reveals itself.
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Media opera is a contemporary variant of opera, defined according to the type of staging. It exists in a pre-recorded and programmed form, without live performers. The performance integrates various media – video projections, sound, animation, 3D modelling and other digital technologies – combining recordings of operatic music with elements of visual art, performance and installation. The role of the creators of the visual component – the director, scenographer, video projection artist, lighting designers and animators – is particularly important.
