Burattino
An opera for children in 3 acts (2 parts), sung in Lithuanian
Libretto by Anzelmas Matutis (after Aleksey Tolstoy’s book The Little Gold Key, or the Adventures of Burattino)
A mischievous but kind-hearted wooden boy seems to be no different from his peers: he never stops playing pranks, looking for adventures and doesn’t want to go to school; he wants to be friends with everybody, and he is especially fond of his dad, carpenter Carlo. Every day he has countless adventures that lead him to the Land of Fools, the Field of Wonders, Tortilla’s pond and a roadside inn… Along the way, he meets the evil puppet theatre director Karabas Barabas, robbers dressed as a fox and a cat, and the police dogs. From Tortilla the Turtle, he receives the Golden Key, which is to open a secret door… But how to find it?
The melodies, cheerful songs and fun characters of Jurgis Gaižauskas’ opera Burattino, which have been familiar to several generations of audiences, returned to the stage of Klaipėda State Music Theatre in autumn 2022. The chamber production of the opera concluded the youth residency, which involved young singers from Klaipėda Music Schools, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and the Klaipėda Children’s Opera Studio.
The three-act opera Burattino, written in 1968 by composer Jurgis Gaižauskas and librettist Anzelmas Matutis, based on the fairy tale by Alexei Tolstoy, The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Burattino, is the first and longest-running Lithuanian opera for children, and it has not lost its popularity to date. The composer himself has explained the reasons for his opera’s longevity as follows: “it is still being shown because it has a lot of striking melodies. For the little ones it is important to follow action, to be captivated. And here, the children are also acting on stage, overcoming all obstacles, achieving happiness…”
