Lithuanian opera singer, Virgilijus Noreika, Died at 82

  Music

Virgilijus Kęstutis Noreika was born on September 22, 1935, in Šiauliai and died on March 3, 2018.

He was a Lithuanian tenor.

During 1958, he graduated with honors from the Lithuanian State Conservatory.

A year pirior to that, while he was still a student, he was enrolled as a performer at the National Opera and Ballet Theater of Lithuania.

During 1959, he sang the part of Alfredo Germont in Verdi’s La traviata, one of Noreika’s favorite and most frequently performed roles.

Following that, he continued his career at the La Scala, in Milan, in 1965.

His creative biography comprises more than 40 operatic roles, to name a few Cavaradossi from Tosca by Puccini, Faust from Faust by Gounod, Rudolfo from La bohème by Puccini, Otello from Otello by Verdi, to name a few.

He also performed in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre, in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón, in Paris at the Opéra National de Paris, and many other famous Opera houses.

He has been to over 30 foreign theaters to perform, participated in more than 1000 performances, given approximately 600 solo concerts, recorded 20 phonographic records and CDs.

During 1997, he celebrated his 40th anniversary as an operatic tenor, and received the Kipras Award from the Opera Fellow Society.

He came out of retirement to work as a Professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.

Noreika was awarded Medal of Pushkin in Russia, in 2015.

In his honor The First International Virgilijus Noreika Competition for Singers was created in 2017 for his birthday.

He died at 82 years old.