For the first time in Lithuania, Pažaislis Music Festival audiences will hear rarely heard opera “Thérèse” by Jules Massenet. This work with its intriguing plot and wonderful music will be performed by the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre Orchestra and Male Choir, the main roles will be sung by Justina Gringytė and Edgaras Montvidas, with Maestro Ričardas Šumila at the conductor’s podium.
“Thérèse” is one of Massenet last operas (the composer wrote 25 of them in total) and one of the operas that led his contemporaries to call the composer “the poet of the female soul”. It focuses on a woman torn between love and duty. The two-act opera, based on a libretto by Jules Claretie was not one of Massenet most popular operas, but its beautiful music and the vocal parts, which demanded great skill from the performers, did not make it forgettable. After its premiere in Monte Carlo in 1907, the opera saw the lights of the ramps a few more times and was forgotten for a while. A renaissance began in 1972, when the opera premiered in the United States. The opera was subsequently remembered by the producers of several other theatres, and in 2013 the concert organisation Festival de Radio France et Montpellier released a recording of “Thérèse”.

The opera is set during the French Revolution, from autumn 1792 to summer 1793. Therese, wife of the revolutionary Girondist André, conceals from her husband an affair with his friend, the royalist Marquis Armand. Armand wants to flee the country to avoid the wrath of the revolutionaries, and André himself takes care of this by giving him temporary shelter in his home. Unfortunately, after the guillotining of King Louis XVI, the Girondists fell into disfavour with the Revolution. In the wake of the riots, André joins the other Girondists, leaving Therese and Armand at home. Teresa persuades Armand to flee, promising to join him later. When she sees André arrested through the window, she shouts “Long live the King!” to the crowd. The furious crowd bursts into the house and arrests Therese. She finds herself next to her husband, who is being led away on a scaffold.

After the festival, you will find a recording of the concert here: