The legend of the noble knights, as old as the world, will be revived in a new programme “Songs of the Knights” by Eugenijus Chrebtovas, one of the most famous Lithuanian baritones of today, and Raminta Lampsatytė, the ambassador of Lithuanian culture in Germany, pianist, vocal coach and musicologist. It would probably be difficult to find a person who has not heard of the strange knight Don Quixote, who performed incredible feats, experienced the strangest adventures, and was always full of noble thoughts and unattainable desires. His deeds, inspired by the many novels he has read about wandering knights, may strike many as strange to say the least. But, on the other hand, how much of his quests and the reflections that accompany them contain the wisdom of life, the philosophy of chivalry, the dreamy idealisation of objects. For this musical reflection, the performers of this concert have chosen two legendary vocal cycles and excerpts from Mitch Leigh’s musical “The Man from La Mancha”.
The first cycle is Jacques Ibert’s “Songs of Don Quixote”, composed for the legendary film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst and starring Fyodor Chaliapin as Don Quixote. He was the first to provide the voice-over for the four Ibert songs in the film, released in 1936. The second vocal masterpiece is Maurice Ravel’s “Don Quichotte à Dulcinée”. Ravel was the first composer to be commissioned to compose music for Pabst’s film. Unfortunately, as he was beginning to compose the music, his illness worsened and the composer was forced to stop working. When the director did not receive the music in time, he terminated his contract with the composer and handed over the commission to Ibert. This angered Ravel, but he did not abandon the idea and, after recovering somewhat from his illness, wrote three songs with lyrics by the film’s scriptwriter, Paulo Morando. Unfortunately, the composer only finished the songs with the help of friends and assistants, as he was no longer able to even sign them himself.
The songs from the American composer Leigh’s musical “The Man from La Mancha” sound like hymns to love and chivalry. The story of this musical is set in a prison where Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra himself is sitting and, in order to prove his authorship, is staging a play about Don Quixote together with the other prisoners.
