Musical performance "homo asfaltus"

Creative team: Composer – Dominykas Digimas Conductor – Egidijus Kaveckas Director – Giedrė Kriaučionytė-Vosylienė Script and libretto author – Lina Laura Švedaitė Costume designer – Izabelė Narečionytė Lighting designer – Pijus Vasiliauskas Chief Choirmaster – Algimantas Kriūnas Artistic Director – Giedrius Svilainis

Roles and performers: Choir and orchestra of the state ensemble "lietuva" Pregnant woman – Smiltė Murencevaitė-Janušienė / Ieva Granickienė Mom – Ingrida Raugaitė / Aušra Kiuraitė-Svilainienė Old man – Saulius Vasiliauskis / Zenius Sakalauskas Twin sister – Asta Balnionytė-Grajevskė / Estera Paukštytė-Penkaitienė Runner – Domas Saulevičius / Modestas Karanda Person – Gintarė Kulikauskytė / Justina Kaminskaitė Woman – Viktorija Šedbaraitė / Rima Žukauskienė Museum employee – Daiva Čepulionienė / Irena Kerulienė Yoga teacher – Jevgenijus Kovalčukas / Dainius Garuckas Dad – Martynas Žukauskas / Albertas Toločka Neighbor – Kęstutis Papartis Voice of the news – Donatas Kaikaris Man – Ignas Ščesnulevičius

The State Ensemble "Lietuva" will visit the Kaunas State Philharmonic to present the musical performance with the intriguing title "Homo asfaltus" to the public. The program, as promised by the performers, will surprise both long-time fans and those just discovering the ensemble with its highly unusual format.

"Homo asfaltus" is a musical performance about today's person who has lost their connection to the earth and is searching for themselves in a global world. Inspired by the works of Jonas Mekas, Antanas Škėma, and other Lithuanian diaspora literature, the performance explores the urban person living in an environment of speed, information, anxiety, and illusions, yet increasingly feeling a longing for nature and their roots. In the work, 21st-century reality is presented with a touch of intellectual irony, and the music of the performance brings together contemporary rhythms and the sound of national heritage: sutartinės, kanklės, and birbynė music will become a journey from the noise of the city back to an archaic world of sound.

At the center of the work is a woman living in the city who is determined to jump off a bridge and only learns from those around her that she is pregnant, as she does not notice it herself. This event turns the woman's gaze toward the world: "What kind of world will I bring my future child into?" The pregnant woman, a city dweller, begins to feel a desire to return to nature. Finally, labor begins – a new human marks a new possible beginning and a new stage.

"The sense of the end of the world in which we live today is the possibility of the beginning of a new world. We have overestimated the mind, which is why we spin endlessly in circles of hell, but there are still constructs that return us to nature, one of which is pregnancy," says director Giedrė Kriaučionytė-Vosylienė, presenting the idea of the project.