To New York - through the capital of Lithuania. This is how the cards fell for tenor Kristian Benedikt (Vaid Vyšniauskas): after joining hands with the famous Metropolitan Theater of New York, where he will participate in the production of the opera "Queen of Spades" in the end of 2019 and play the role of German, he joined the team of Vilnius City Opera that had already prepared this performance. Thus, the same Germana, which is being prepared for New York, will be presented to the Lithuanian audience already on February 20-24 at the Palace of Congresses.
Kristian Benedikt really shouldn't have appeared in the already finished rehearsal of Piotr Tchaikovsky's opera The Queen of Spades. He was preparing a role in a completely different production, and Vilnius City Opera was waiting for the famous Ukrainian tenor Misha Didyk to join them. But in the life of opera creators, not everything necessarily goes according to plan. The guest from Ukraine never came to the rehearsals, and the "Bohemians" scrambled to find a replacement for the performer of this important role in a short time. There are not many people who can sing German - who have the right dramatic voice and great acting skills - and here we still had to rehearse for four weeks because the production is new. And fate, fortunately aligned stars or just coincidence determined that at a similar time, Kristian Benedikt was offered a contract to participate in the production of The Queen of Spades at the Metropolitan Opera and sing the performance. Although the soloist had already performed German in Moscow's Bolshoi Theater, the opportunity to hone the role in detail before New York with his excellent stage partners, maestro Gintars Rinkevičius and director Dalia Ibelhauptaite, was truly unique.
"Personal interests coincided with artistic ones. At first, he only came to rehearse, but he worked so sincerely, without counting the hours, that it was impossible not to see how important that time is for the soloist in improving the role and finding new colors for it. I was surprised by his dedication, as he was preparing for another role at the time. With his professional approach and hard work, he proved to us that Kristian Benedikt is one of the best Germans today. I am glad that the Vilnius audience will be able to see it and that we will release it to New York with a calm heart. Our soloists can really successfully compete with the best on the world's best stages", Dalia Ibelhauptaitė did not hide her pride.
"I am happy that I can work with Dalia again - she always provokes new ideas, maestro Gintars Rinkevičius, who is a fantastic conductor, and all the partners, starting with Asmik Grigorian singing Liza, Irena Milkevičiūta, Kostas Smorigins - are simply wonderful. I feel more comfortable working here and with them than anywhere else. Germano's role itself is not one you can just take and sing. He is complex, requiring maximum vocal technique, colors, acting, spiritual strength and concentration, says Kristian Benedikt himself, adding that he created his German by learning from his old performers, but he tried to make the character relevant for today's audience. "Perhaps the viewer will recognize, see himself, and have something to think about when he leaves."
Mihailas Vekua, the main performer of Germano at St. Petersburg's Maria Theater, will share the role with Kristian Benedikt. Asmik Grigorian, Kostas Smoriginas, Irena Milkevičiūtė, Jurgita Adamonytė, foreign guests Mzia Nioradze, Ilja Kutiukhinas, Yurijs Samoilovs, Elena Popovskaja and a large group of very talented young people also participate in the production of "Queen of Spades".
