The RESURRECTION project
Music is not just an entertainment; music provides life in the truest sense.
Modern man searches for exquisite experiences. And there is an immense offer of experiences and sensations for all kind of consumers on the market. Classical music is just a one kind of it … Not exclusive? Not, anymore. That is why nowadays orchestras are doomed to fight relentlessly to retain attention of their audiences.
However, we rarely realise or easily forget two essential things, which, indeed, constitute the intrinsic prevalence of classical music. First, principal and evident tenet: all we search in life tooth and nail is an authentic experience of life; life that frees us from the fear of death. Second, classical music and classical culture in its entirety is a carrier of meaning of life, archetypical wisdom of humanity. This is to say, classical music – when approached truthfully and reverently – provides a sense of transcendent beauty and so becomes a soothing remedy for the modern man to rediscover inner delight.
This is the founding principle of my project “Resurrection”, which I produce in the framework of Pažaislis music festival, the largest in Lithuania. Indeed, the idea of the resurrecting human spirit is as old as our Western civilisation. I took lessons from the Ancient Greeks who invented drama to enable citizens to endure the inner renewal – katharsis. So why not to attempt to rediscover the inner drama of katharsis nowadays with the means of classical music? … The positive answer has yielded the Resurrection project.
Dramaturgy of the project events is based on shared life-and-death experiences of an society addressed. Drama is performed by means of classical music, visualisations of symbols, also, communication of the project idea to entice an early involvement of the audience.
The first event of the cycle took place in 2019, in my native city Kaunas. That is why it is called “Kaunas. Resurrection I”. Here some glimpses (see the video bellow) of the katharsis dramaturgy of three parts: (i) terror and death during the Soviet occupation (G.Crumb: Black Angels), (ii) magnanimity of historic leaders (S.Rachmaninov: Isle of Death), (iii) ascent of the desecrated symbol of the city – Resurrection church (R.Wagner: Tannhäuzer „Overture“) and, at the end, popular national chant sang by tutti in the hall („Lietuva brangi“ – „How beautiful You are, my cherished Homeland“).
