The annual Banchetto Musicale festival being organized for the 25th time invites audiences to seven concerts by Lithuanian and foreign performers, and a special event dedicated to celebrate Opera Day in Lithuania. 2015 marks 400 years since the second edition of Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo was released in Venice, which is why on September 5 this unique production will be performed by experienced early music artists from Lithuania, Poland, Italy, Spain, Germany, Norway and France. The theme of this year’s festival is Orpheus and mythology.

The festival will traditionally present music programmes spanning various epochs and focus attention on younger Lithuanian performers. Violinist Ūla Kinderytė with organ and harpsichord player Vilimas Norkūnas will invite you to dive into the depths of stylus fantasticus where there’ll be plenty of chaos, sensations of vertigo, animal sounds and free-form drive, whereas the Chiaroscuro ensemble performing the pastorale Augelletti, ruscelletti will take listeners to a moving world of contrasts.

Early music expert Stefano Albarello from Italy will bring to life the cultural legacy of the Carolingian epoch and tell us about the times when composers used the most beautiful verses from Horace, Virgil, Boethius and other poet geniuses for their own works. Spanish ensemble Magister Petrus, dedicated to the reconstruction of music performance from the Romanesque and Early Gothic periods, will present a programme which will feature lyrics about the most glorified heroes of Antiquity and the strongest of emotions.

Members of the Luxurians collective and the winner of the International J. S. Bach Competition Marie Friederike Schöder from Germany will be performing a programme of French cantatas, and show us that it is indeed an ideal platform for the expression of artistry. The Brevis Choir will invite audiences to listen to the very modern-sounding masterpiece by the Renaissance genius, Antoine Brumel – his Mass setting Et ecce terrae motus.

The festival will come to an end with the rich sound of strings and voice. Highly acclaimed British tenor Thomas Hobbs and early string instrument masters, Belgian Sofie Vanden Eynde and Austrian Romina Lischka will reveal to listeners the magic behind Orpheus’ lyre.

The anniversary early music festival Banchetto Musicale will be held from September 7–21, however all fans of early music and opera are invited to a prologue to the forthcoming musical feast on September 5 at 5 pm at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania – Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo.