Kipras Petrauskas - La donna è mobile

Описание: Kipras Petrauskas (1885-1968) was born in Ceikiniai in eastern Lithuania to a musical family. His father was a woodworker by trade who also worked as organist for various churches in the district. His brother, Mikas, was an accomplished composer, conductor, teacher and singer. Young Kipras received his musical education from these two gentlemen and began his career as an organist. His first appearance on the opera stage came about in the neighboring town of Vilnius in 1906 in his brother’s opera Birutė. Realizing that he needed further training, the young tenor applied to the Conservatory in St. Petersburg and was granted a scholarship. During his four years there, he sang the lead tenor roles in many student productions, including Yevgeny Onegin, May Night, Faust and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Petrauskas was seen by…and made quite an impression on…representatives from some of Russia’s leading theaters. Upon leaving the Conservatory, the young tenor was bombarded by contracts and in very short order, made a pair of important debuts… as Roméo at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre and as the Duke in Rigoletto at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre.

Petrauskas was quite popular at the Mariinsky and remained there for the next decade. He developed a repertoire of diverse roles, including the leads in La Traviata, Tosca, La Bohème, Manon, Mefistofele, The Barber of Seville, The Snow Maiden and others. As Petrauskas matured, he began to take on more dramatic roles such as Don Jose in Carmen, Radames in Aïda, Canio in Pagliacci, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, Eléazar in La Juive and the title roles in Andrea Chénier, Lohengrin and even Otello. After returning to his native region in the early 1920s, the tenor was instrumental in establishing The Lithuanian Opera Theatre (now Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet) in the town of Kaunas, where he frequently performed. Petrauskas also made frequent appearances in Riga and Tallin, as well as giving performances throughout Germany, Spain, France, Scandinavia and South America. In 1933, the forty-eight year old singer made his La Scala debut as Grishka Kuterma in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh.

Kipras Petrauskas enjoyed an unusually long career…more than fifty years…and developed an impressive repertoire of over eighty roles. His final stage appearance was as Don Jose in Carmen at his beloved Lithuanian Opera Theatre (which had relocated to Vilnius) in 1958 at the age of 73. By that time, the elderly tenor was Professor of Voice at the Vilnius Conservatory, a post he assumed in 1949. He continued teaching nearly up to the time of his death, which occurred on January 17, 1968.

In this 1924 piano accompanied recording, Petrauskas sings "La donna è mobile" (in Lithuanian) from Verdi's Rigoletto.