May 2019
Opera "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" by V.Bellini. Premieré on May 19th, 2019
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Stage director - Katrin Tegova Musical director - Erki Pehk Set and costume designer - Madis Nurms Choreographer - Dainius Bervingis Lighting designer- Margus Vaigur Video designer - Argo Valdmaa |
Romeo - Abigail Levis The orchestra and chorus of the Kaunas State Musical Theatre |
Costume drawings
The design is inspired by two musical moments in the opera: first a recurring theme from Sinfonia that resembles galloping horses and secondly a phrase from Giulietta's aria: "I burn, a blaze, a fire
all my torment" (Ardo...una vampa, un foco tutta mi strugge). First of the two inspired the central images of the set design, another provided the gleaming-hot orange color scheme of the costumes.
The design has an image of a horse at its core, repeating in different forms throughout the opera. A horse as both a symbol of war and loyalty seems to fit in essence with the central conflict of the opera which is similar to Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet", a well known play based on the same sources. The bloody strife between the Capuleti and Montecchi can be seen as a sort of a chess game, where the most characteristic piece of two rival factions is a knight - also represented by a horse's head and neck.
