“From That Opera” – a different approach to the theatre’s backstage

MO Museum presents the new exhibition “From That Opera“ which is a unique project collaboration between MO and Vilnius City Opera (VCO). The troupe, known as the “bohemians”, shook the Lithuanian opera scene to the core more than a decade ago and now they’re stepping in to surprise a different audience – the visitors of the museum. The exhibition opens new doors for experiencing the journey through the secret side of opera theatre. In addition, the viewer gets to meet the 27 international opera stars that have flourished in VCO.

The new interdisciplinary exhibition at MO Museum

Something that is unconventional to the traditions of theatre, might be new to the visitors of the museum as well:

“The Small Hall of MO Museum is the home of exhibitions that combine various disciplines. We’ve already had an exhibition-laboratory and we’ve also presented an exhibition that was created alongside with experience designers. This time, by opening an exhibition in collaboration with VCO, we offer our visitors a project-installation that juxtaposes opera, stage design and the visual arts,” says Milda Ivanauskienė, Director at MO Museum.

According to her, VCO were the outsiders in the world of traditional opera for a long time and that is why one of the main aims while preparing the exhibition was to discover unorthodox and peculiar ways of telling their story.

The journey to the other side of opera

The initial idea of presenting the scenography elements of Marijus Jacovskis and Dick Bird in tandem with the costumes designed by Juozas Statkevičius and the portraits of the „bohemians“ by Mindaugas Meškauskas made in an early photographic technique of the 19^th century was concluded by a well-known multimedia artist Rimas Sakalauskas. His video projections possess a multitude of overlapping meanings and periods of time that guide the visitor not only through a physical but also a memory filled journey of the troupe. R. Sakalauskas didn’t stop there: besides the original projections he created technically modified collages containing archival material of VCO. And something more…

Video projections with Dexter Fletcher

At the moment MO Museum is also holding a spectacular exhibition “Why Is It Hard to Love?” by Saskia Boddeke and Peter Greenaway. While opening the exhibition “From That Opera” members of MO and VCO were excited to reveal a uniting factor between those two.

Many years ago Dexter Fletcher was the object of P. Greenaway’s exhibition about the film director Derek Jarman and had to spend 8 hours standing still under a glass shield in a museum. Now, nowhere else, but here, the paths of these two cinema artists intertwine on the different floors of MO Museum.

But what is so special about D. Fletcher being a part of this exhibition? Well, he will finally fulfill his dream role of playing Sweeney Todd! Inside the installation, surfacing on the original decorations of VCO, the visitors will be able to view a projection of live filmed scenes following the plot of the musical. Trivia: the material for this art piece was prepared only a few days before the opening of the exhibition!

An extraordinary team for the exhibition

The exhibition “From That Opera” brought together a huge team of professionals. Alongside the VCO opera director Dalia Ibelhauptaitė, the exhibition is also led by its curator Algė Gudaitytė who takes in this interdisciplinary project with great openheartedness and consideration.

“The aim of this exhibition was to tell the history of VCO and its uniqueness in the context of the general Lithuanian opera scene. The “bohemians“ create an alterantive, very lively and rich, different world of opera, which explains why we were searching for unconventional forms of exhibiting opera in the first place. Right from the beggining we sought to reveal the fundamental idea that behind the final theatrical image visible to the viewer lies a huge, rarely accessible, other side of opera – a construction, made not only out of decorations, props, costumes, but, most importantly, out of people and individual personalities. Many components make up the exhibition like an enourmous installation of experience, which invites the visitors to come back and back again,“ – curator A. Gudaitytė presents the concept of the exhibition.

“The architectual idea of the exhibition was to strip away the real backbone of the spectacle: real people becoming characters, theatrical constructions generating real sensations and creative ideas that the magic of theatre could not exist without. In the exhibition the viewer is invited to become a participant of the whole experience, roaming around the backstage, set up right before the start of the show, when every single detail is waiting for it‘s turn to shine on stage. Step by step one becomes acquainted with the history of VCO so intimately that by the end of it the viewer takes the soloist‘s spot, recieving a standing ovation from the public“, – says the architect of the exhibition Ieva Cicėnaitė.

Authentic stories

Whatever symbol or object it may be, it can never retell the experience of a live person. That is how interviews made specifically for this exhibition came around. They will showcase the maestro himself Gintaras Rinkevičius, such celebrities as Asmik Grigorian, Edgaras Montvidas, Kostas Smoriginas and others. And the whims of the most curious will be satisfied by the stories of the scene‘s grey eminences.

The secret stories of the backstage will be told by the longtime assistants of the main creative minds, the director of the troup and the author of the title of the exhibition, the genius behind the remarkable marketings decisions – Stefanija Jokštytė. By the way, visitors will also get to see the original “bohemian” brochures that was taken care of by the designer Tadas Karpavičius.

Exhibition opening day events

Visitors will be able to attend the exhibition at MO Museum starting from September 3^rd. The specific exhibition-installation format requires to experience it as personally as possible so don’t be surprised if one might have to wait a bit. But time will go by fast as the team is already taking care of additional exhibits in the spaces near the Small Hall.

During the evening of the opening there will be a discussion between the two of VCO creatives – D. Ibelhauptaitė and G. Rinkevičius. It will be disclosed, how the artists created an alternative for the ordinary opera theatre in nontraditional ways as well as in spaces misfit for the theatre and brought back together youth of Lithuania and inspired them to aim for worldwide renown.

There will also be a chance to meet the soloists, who have performed at the biggest scenes of the opera world – Aušrinė Stundytė, Kostas Smoriginas, Vida Miknevičiūtė and Justina Gringytė  – that could only be held down in Vilnius because of the pandemic that changed the plans of the whole world’s opera theatres.

The evening will end with music – a concert, where the “bohemian” talents – Vida Miknevičiūtė, Romanas Kudriašovas, Edgaras Davidovičius and Monika Pleškytė will perform. Concermaster Justas Čeponis.

Exhibition “From That Opera” and its varied team

A wide team of people contributed to the exhibition “From That Opera”. Exhibition director – Dalia Ibelhauptaitė, exhibition curator – Algė Gudaitytė, architect – Ieva Cicėnaitė, author of the photographs – Mindaugas Meškauskas, creator of video projections – Rimas Sakaluskas, light artists – Andrius Stasiulis and Eugenijus Sabaliauskas, exhibition designers – KlimaiteKlimaite. Find more information on the exhibition HERE.