Upside Down

The Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre begins its 107th season with an exceptional world premiere! This is a work born from the concept of the legendary director Robert Wilson; unfortunately, fate did not allow time for it to be realized on stage.

One of the most famous Lithuanian composers Žibuoklė Martinaitytė currently lives in New York, but gives her work to the whole world, just as R. Wilson used to do. She created the music for her first opera after long conversations with the director – the whole piece is based on his ideas, and the music in turn inspired R. Wilson's new visions. Upside Down, which tells about a journey into the world, is inspired by Inuit poetry, arctic cold, snow and ice, images of purity and whiteness, as if stating: everything has two sides, this side and the upside down, and you can never be sure which one you see, which is the real one...

R. Wilson's team of like-minded professionals, who are staging the opera at the LNOBT, interpret the hints he expressed, and at the same time create their own production. According to director Nicola Panzer, this work is like a collage of diverse experiences, put together on a journey of world knowledge, often reciting internal monologues within themselves. The opera (the author of the libretto is playwright Konrad Kuhn) features fragments of English, Inuit, Lithuanian languages, poetry, myths and legends. In this world premiere of the opera Upside Down, an unexpected journey full of discoveries awaits all of us.