9^th Contemporary Opera Festival NOA

26/10/2025, Sunday, 21.00

Doors open at 20:00

Tamsta Music Club (A. Strazdelio St 1, Vilnius)

Have a Good Day! REMIX

Festival closing concert

It will soon be 15 years since the premiere of the opera Have a Good Day!. During that time, the creative team has visited many countries and international festivals. Playful improvisations of pianist Kęstutis Pavalkis, heard behind the scenes on tour many times, are finally taking the form of a concert remix. The arias from the opera Have a Good Day! invite you to travel through various musical styles and discover new interpretations of the piece, presented as jazz, blues, techno, psychedelic rock, etc.

Performers:

Kęstutis Pavalkis (arrangements, keyboards)

Laimonas Jančas (electric guitar)

Paulius Adomėnas (bass guitar)

Gediminas Augustaitis (drums)

Singers – Veronika Čičinskaitė-Golovanova, Kristina Svolkinaitė, Indrė Anankaitė-Kalašnikovienė, Lina Valionienė, Liucina Blaževič, Vida Valuckienė, Rima Šovienė, Rita Račiūnienė, Lina Lapelytė, Vaiva Grainytė, Ana Ablamonova

Producer Ana Ablamonova:

Behind the scenes of Have a Good Day!, Kęstutis Pavalkis’ improvisations on opera themes during sound checks often stirred up the jazz and pop divas performing the cashier arias in this performance. We would joke that we should put together a fun Have a Good Day! concert where we could all “show our true colors”.

Pianist and arranger Kęstutis Pavalkis:

The minimalist arias of opera characters provoked me in two ways – sometimes I wanted to turn them in a completely different, perhaps unexpected and absurd musical direction. And sometimes, inspired by the musicality of a particular aria, I wanted to stylistically emphasise it even more, as if to extract its essence. In my arrangements, I seek to combine the personality and musical experience of each aria performer with the material of the opera character. This programme is an opportunity to celebrate almost 15 years of creative journey together with the opera Have a Good Day!.

Libretto author Vaiva Grainytė:

Stain remover in the vegetable section, a canary on the bread shelf, guitars in the drinks’ aisle! The remix concert is as enchanting as a fun carnival, during which the members of the creative team swap roles, reveal their unknown talents, and celebrate almost fifteen years of togetherness.

Composer Lina Lapelytė:

This format is particularly appealing because, ultimately, we all become authors of the piece. For me, as a music creator, handing over control to other team members is a way to hear Have a Good Day! differently; at the same time, it is a lesson in openness, tolerance, and inclusion. Besides, Kęstutis Pavalkis is one of the most amazing musicians I know – any content can take on a magical form in his hands.

Director Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė:

We keep turning over the calendar year in Foreigner’s aria, we adapt to new spaces, but the overall structure of Have a Good Day! remains unchanged, like a long-frozen cake. It is good not to know what the holiday cake of Have a Good Day! woud be like!

Duration: 60 minutes

In Lithuanian

The event will be filmed and photographed. The material will be distributed publicly.