LRT — broadcast
20260806 003000 UTC
497 transcript segments
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking
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[00:00:00] I say, how dare you offer such a thing to me,
[00:00:04] to me, a beginner,
[00:00:06] that I don't even know how to walk,
[00:00:10] to me it was the stage,
[00:00:13] opera, it's the holiest place
[00:00:17] where only the chosen can
[00:00:19] go out, they say, well, what will we give her?
[00:00:23] Demon, no, we'll give
[00:00:25] her Pique Dame
[00:00:30] conducted by Gruodis, so I did it,
[00:00:33] I debuted, I think, in December with Pique
[00:00:37] Dame Polina,
[00:00:39] I trembled greatly, especially when I had to be
[00:00:43] a boy in the second act, what a number, my
[00:00:47] legs were trembling, I thought that if I had a needle,
[00:00:50] I would prick myself, maybe the trembling would stop,
[00:00:53] I was incredibly scared, but
[00:00:56] the performance ended
[00:00:58] and, well, and thank God I was accepted into
[00:01:01] the theater.
[00:01:07] Well, as they say, a successful first role opens up a lot.
[00:01:10] daug.
[00:01:16] The land she dreamed of and
[00:01:19] her
[00:01:21] non-starring
[00:01:23] neither prayers, nor words of protection, nor
[00:01:27] promises.
[00:01:30] with only
[00:01:33] tears flowing
[00:01:35] and
[00:01:41] what they value most is the whole, that there is not only
[00:01:44] a voice, but
[00:01:47] a performance,
[00:01:50] she moves beautifully, she dances beautifully, and these
[00:01:53] 25 years become her beautiful, stable
[00:01:57] growth period, when she already has roles, when
[00:02:00] she spends mornings, lunches
[00:02:04] and evenings in this musical theater with colleagues,
[00:02:07] as we say, plenty of intrigues, but also friendships,
[00:02:11] Kipras Petrauskas protects her very much, she receives
[00:02:15] many good tips, useful tips for a young person
[00:02:18] from him.
[00:02:21] Carmen's role, Bizet's Carmen, she
[00:02:25] would make sure that no other soloist
[00:02:28] would get that role. Because this was already her
[00:02:32] and she probably sang it first in Kaunas, yes, yes, yes, I really
[00:02:35] remember that it made such an impression on me, that I thought,
[00:02:39] aha, this is like a real
[00:02:40] prima donna.
[00:02:43] What kind of Carmen did you create in your imagination before
[00:02:47] bringing her to the stage?
[00:02:51] Well, how to say it, I read that it's
[00:02:54] a natural, absolutely natural
[00:02:57] person, no compromise.
[00:03:04] But she saw a person and well, it means she can die with that
[00:03:08] person, but that is her nature, perhaps
[00:03:11] that's why I got such
[00:03:15] in '37, when I sang
[00:03:18] in the opera comique,
[00:03:21] it was written, I think, that for the first
[00:03:26] and it could have been some such, well, time we had a Carmen,
[00:03:30] who understood
[00:03:34] Bizet's and Mérimée's wishes,
[00:03:37] mhm, so I think that's one of the biggest criticisms I
[00:03:41] have received, mhm, for Carmen, I am proud
[00:03:45] and happy and was happy, no
[00:03:47] doubt.
[00:03:54] But I will die, I will love
[00:03:56] and you.
[00:04:02] Active in everything, in 25 years we
[00:04:05] can see her not only in the theater,
[00:04:26] see her in scout activities, we can, well, in short.
[00:04:30] also very much into folk art, she was, yes, but very
[00:04:33] correctly, but I am leading to the fact that, after all, the beginning and the end are
[00:04:37] connected with folk songs, it was said that no one
[00:04:39] knows how many songs her mother knew, at the end of her life,
[00:04:43] living in America, everything ended with Lithuanian folk
[00:04:46] songs. Despite the fact that she studied
[00:04:50] in Berlin, Rome, that later, already being the wife of the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
[00:04:53] she traveled the world, as a performer she traveled the
[00:04:57] world, but her understanding that... she is, that she is
[00:05:01] Lithuanian, allowed her to remain very much in the air, traveling, for example,
[00:05:04] in some international events, she would say, I
[00:05:08] always put on my white headscarf,
[00:05:11] my sunny, huge amber necklace,
[00:05:14] an incredibly beautiful patterned costume,
[00:05:17] and then everyone looks at me, I have to be beautiful,
[00:05:20] elegant, but then everyone thinks, where are they from,
[00:05:24] who are they, and then I can already talk about my
[00:05:27] country, so bearing in mind that she was a star, without
[00:05:31] exception, I would say, that without exception, she was very much
[00:05:35] respected, when she would come she was always seated in the first
[00:05:39] place, and at the table after concerts. invited
[00:05:42] and I say, her
[00:05:45] demeanor alone was like Maria
[00:05:49] Callas, people naturally respected her like that, because she walked like
[00:05:52] a queen, simply like a queen, and
[00:05:56] that demeanor of hers, that of a
[00:05:59] prima donna, somehow she was probably used to it
[00:06:03] in Kaunas, so very, very, but it suited her
[00:06:06] very well.
[00:06:12] "We come to the theater where an acquaintance with her husband could
[00:06:15] have happened, but the acquaintance happened elsewhere, when
[00:06:18] in '25 Vince became the
[00:06:22] star of this theater, she didn't even
[00:06:24] think about marriage and didn't think, because there was
[00:06:28] no time, because there were matters, well, but how, when love caught
[00:06:32] her unexpectedly, in '29, at
[00:06:35] Augustinas Voldemaras', she meets her
[00:06:38] future husband, meets him very coquettishly.
[00:06:43] She was a brave woman, a passionate woman,
[00:06:46] Carmen, well, just like her role, and by the way, she also
[00:06:50] said that all her roles, she lived through all of them and all
[00:06:53] of them are her own, well, in short, at that party
[00:06:57] they asked her to sing, no, no, she said, but I
[00:07:01] don't have the sheet music, well, who could bring me the sheet music,
[00:07:05] and Dovas Zaunius was sitting there, that is
[00:07:08] a man, a minor Lithuanian, and also
[00:07:10] an incredibly interesting family history, he
[00:07:14] quietly in a corner watched this beautiful prima donna
[00:07:17] and she says: if this gentleman brings
[00:07:20] me the sheet music, I will sing, but had
[00:07:24] she already noticed him or not?
[00:07:27] It seems like it was the first time, because he could have seen her
[00:07:31] or it was just still very new, because he was returning
[00:07:35] from abroad at that time, because he had not yet been appointed Minister
[00:07:38] of Foreign Affairs, at that time he had a
[00:07:42] wife, because Dovas Zaunius was married three times,
[00:07:45] his first wife died, she died very early,
[00:07:49] she died
[00:07:49] leaving,
[00:07:55] his first wife died leaving two children,
[00:07:58] whom Vince later raised very diligently, and
[00:08:02] cared for, but his second wife, very
[00:08:05] interestingly, according to the official version, was
[00:08:08] British, with whom he was divorcing at that time, according to another
[00:08:12] version, exactly Vince, that was Russian, and for Lithuanians to marry
[00:08:16] Russians, aren't there any of their own, right, in short, such
[00:08:19] a notion, by the way, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, which
[00:08:23] he soon becomes, could not also
[00:08:26] just get married, if he was not married at that time, he had to get
[00:08:29] permission from his superior, from the head of government,
[00:08:33] so he needed approval from the cabinet, Vince
[00:08:36] meets Dovas in '29 and everything
[00:08:39] develops very, very quickly, and
[00:08:42] Dovas is offered to become Minister of Foreign Affairs
[00:08:46] at the same time, and he refuses, because he can't,
[00:08:49] because these personal ties, well, relationships are developing,
[00:08:52] it's very complicated, but everything gets resolved very quickly
[00:08:56] in Königsberg, because they go to
[00:08:58] Königsberg and get married civilly, in Kaunas,
[00:09:02] there is no civil marriage in Lithuania, in short, everyone, when they
[00:09:05] needed to arrange matters, would go to Riga or, in this case, to
[00:09:09] Königsberg, two months they tell no one anything and..." later
[00:09:12] they celebrate such human weddings at the Petrauskas
[00:09:16] home, because she and Petrauskas's wife Elena were very good
[00:09:19] friends, well, it's joked that composer Jakūbėnas, as she
[00:09:23] writes, was getting married, well, but since she
[00:09:27] is a believer, it seems that living in a civil
[00:09:30] marriage is not very suitable, it has no
[00:09:34] meaning, so after all, there are third
[00:09:37] marriages already with a priest
[00:09:41] and two children are born, one after the other, Saulius
[00:09:44] Tomas or Sauliukas
[00:09:46] and Giedrė, by the way, also a completely newly created
[00:09:50] interwar name, well, and the children are baptized
[00:09:53] by the much-loved priest Tumas.
[00:09:57] Godparents, Merkys and Klimas, but all
[00:10:01] that company, that cream of the crop,
[00:10:04] and they live really beautifully, luxuriously,
[00:10:08] her husband becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs, he remains until
[00:10:10] '34. This is the longest-serving
[00:10:14] Minister of Foreign Affairs, he travels a lot,
[00:10:17] travels also as the Minister's
[00:10:21] wife, by the way, she herself says that I am the third
[00:10:25] lady in the state after the president's wife and the head
[00:10:29] of government's wife, she travels independently
[00:10:32] performing, she performs everywhere, in Rome, Berlin,
[00:10:35] Stockholm, Buenos Aires,
[00:10:38] Moscow, when she returns from Moscow, she gets a scolding
[00:10:41] in the newspapers, for performing where
[00:10:45] the Bolsheviks tormented Christ, then
[00:10:48] she gets offended, doesn't go somewhere else, well, in short, she lived a very
[00:10:52] colorful life, children grow up. She herself
[00:10:55] says that we both greatly enjoy
[00:10:59] our children, we love them very much, they live in a very beautiful place, Laisvės
[00:11:03] Avenue, in the "Milk Center" in that modern,
[00:11:06] beautiful house, one of the most modern, where
[00:11:09] apartments were rented only by foreign ministers,
[00:11:12] well, but in '34,
[00:11:15] Zaunius, due to political conjuncture, was replaced
[00:11:19] by Lozoraitis, that is, a more convenient person in Germany
[00:11:23] nothing ended. The fairy tale didn't end, because
[00:11:27] her husband works in a bank, through which we passed,
[00:11:30] and their beautiful and fulfilling life
[00:11:34] continues, a lot of public activity, the whole
[00:11:37] career ascent and 47
[00:11:40] roles and practically the majority
[00:11:42] are premieres, that is, a performance is staged and
[00:11:46] she, she
[00:12:31] I just have a question, I'm listening, she was generally such
[00:12:35] a restless person, always rushing around, an activist, and here and
[00:12:38] a public figure and and
[00:12:41] she shone on the opera stage, how did she manage to raise
[00:12:45] children? There was someone who helped, there were
[00:12:48] many maids, assistants, a kindergarten,
[00:12:52] she could certainly afford quite a lot. She would kiss
[00:12:55] them goodnight, just like a queen, or doesn't she
[00:12:59] write somewhere that she loved to sit in her
[00:13:03] living room on a white carpet, with her children on her lap,
[00:13:06] and read them fairy tales, truly
[00:13:10] like the Pelian's story, a rise, well,
[00:13:13] and everything has a beginning and an
[00:13:17] end, she herself didn't imagine how
[00:13:20] long that beautiful life would last, but she probably didn't think it would be
[00:13:24] so short. Because
[00:13:26] 1940 was an incredibly
[00:13:30] tragic year for Lithuania, and for her the tragedy began much
[00:13:33] earlier, that is, in February
[00:13:36] of 1940, her husband died in the hospital, who at that time was not even
[00:13:40] 48 years old, he died of a heart attack,
[00:13:44] later, by the way, his son Saulius Tomas also dies at a very similar
[00:13:47] age, suddenly,
[00:13:51] inherited things, perhaps
[00:13:53] other things, perhaps. Our Minister of Foreign Affairs understood
[00:13:57] much more what awaited us, because
[00:13:59] in October of '39 we joyfully regained Vilnius, but at the same time we received
[00:14:03] a gift, mhm, the Soviet army
[00:14:07] and those who had at least some understanding, perfectly understood
[00:14:10] what it was, on the other hand, I think, I make
[00:14:14] this assumption, that the fact that he died and left her,
[00:14:18] by the way, the son was probably 10, and the daughter eight,
[00:14:22] plus two children from the first marriage. Well, whom
[00:14:25] she had to raise and somehow get on their feet, but the fact
[00:14:29] that he died, perhaps protected her a little
[00:14:32] from initial repressions, in February
[00:14:35] Dovas dies, and in June the occupation begins and already
[00:14:39] the first arrests are essentially in June, July,
[00:14:43] so who knows what
[00:14:45] would have
[00:14:47] happened.
[00:14:59] "Well, this little Church of St. Gertrude, hidden
[00:15:03] it seems, in the corner of the modern Laisvės alėja, but in
[00:15:06] fact it is probably a special place and was a special
[00:15:10] place for Vincė, because all the time,
[00:15:14] both when she started singing in the theater and when she got married,
[00:15:18] and especially in those 40s, she often
[00:15:21] came here.
[00:15:24] On June 13, 1941, Kaunas didn't even suspect
[00:15:28] what awaited it that night, that precisely that night
[00:15:31] the great deportations would begin, and
[00:15:34] she, knowing that it could end badly, was already
[00:15:37] hiding at Bražienienė's, and
[00:15:41] Bražienaitė, probably a well-known name, Daumantas Lukša's
[00:15:44] wife, so in her memoirs, it is often
[00:15:47] told that Vincė was with her children, there were 10
[00:15:51] people in that apartment, and
[00:15:54] next door, the deportations of neighbors began, and those neighbors
[00:15:57] were Raštikis, Ašvė, and their three daughters, and she says: we
[00:16:01] saw through the window how this family was taken away, because Raštikis
[00:16:04] was hiding, his wife was arrested and in prison, and his
[00:16:08] parents with the girls were taken to Siberia. She managed
[00:16:11] to avoid the 1941 deportations, and
[00:16:14] here, at this time, as I say, she is a
[00:16:17] guest in this church, she wrote that when
[00:16:20] she needed to pray, it was a special place, and there is such an episode
[00:16:24] recounted, where she comes to this
[00:16:28] church, and there is a descent
[00:16:31] down from the back of the church's subsidy,
[00:16:34] that she pulled her cap down, her hat, so that no one would
[00:16:38] see her, no one would recognize her, because you can't
[00:16:41] know who will tell what to whom,
[00:16:45] and she sees Father Krupavičius hurrying by, who
[00:16:48] also had his collar up so that no one would recognize him,
[00:16:52] so in such a terrible atmosphere, in such
[00:16:54] uncertainty, having just become a widow, with children,
[00:16:58] well, she survived those few years and finally,
[00:17:02] in '44, the decision to travel to the West,
[00:17:05] and when we talk about retreat. "You always have to keep in mind that
[00:17:09] people withdraw with the army, where you can be
[00:17:12] arrested, bombed and
[00:17:15] somewhere along the way during this war, her stepson
[00:17:19] dies, the one from the first marriage, also
[00:17:22] Dovas, later her grandson will also
[00:17:25] be named Dovas, so that name, because Dovas Zaunius's father was
[00:17:29] Dovas, Zaunius loses one child, but as she says, later everything
[00:17:32] appears again, anything that needs to be nurtured and cared
[00:17:36] for. Since she is an incredibly
[00:17:39] optimistic person, she doesn't
[00:17:43] write about the rest of the journey, she doesn't complain, she doesn't cry, although
[00:17:45] from those around her you can understand that it was incredibly difficult,
[00:17:49] so we will also pass Juozas Gruodis
[00:17:52] street, and here is the conservatory,
[00:17:55] I don't know what it's called now,
[00:17:59] yes, Juozas Gruodis Conservatory, by the way,
[00:18:03] the building was built just on the eve of the occupation
[00:18:06] in 1940, aha, what
[00:18:10] graduates from that school, yes, we have one or two,
[00:18:35] we move towards the main political
[00:18:39] building of interwar Lithuania, where Zaunienė,
[00:18:42] I believe, visited more than once, that is
[00:18:51] talk about what happens next in Zaunienė's life,
[00:18:55] so 1948 when
[00:18:58] the DPs already understand that there is no way home, Stalin
[00:19:02] begins the Berlin blockade and already the Cold War
[00:19:05] fully establishes itself and... it is clear to everyone that that part
[00:19:09] behind the Iron Curtain is sacrificed, and the DPs themselves
[00:19:12] feel very unsafe, because they are essentially all in
[00:19:16] camps, and if Stalin's army moves, everyone will
[00:19:19] be arrested, and everyone thinks about how to
[00:19:23] go further, and here Vince has
[00:19:27] a great opportunity, because her older sister
[00:19:30] lives in America, who once went to America with her
[00:19:33] father, she travels to where she will feel lonely.
[00:19:37] Aunt Barbara, because she just goes to her sister and no longer
[00:19:41] alone, as she says, I married a very good man,
[00:19:45] a man who impressed with his
[00:19:47] intellect, because I always liked educated people,
[00:19:51] a journalist and
[00:19:54] philosopher, also, I think, another very little known and
[00:19:58] lost, well, such a thinker, Stasys
[00:20:02] Leaskauskas, a man
[00:20:04] who became a friend, but never replaced Dovas,
[00:20:08] and later we will always know her precisely
[00:20:11] as Zaunienė, not as Leskauskienė.
[00:20:15] Very rarely does this surname surface. A large family
[00:20:18] is joined by Gaskauskas's daughter, whom, by the way,
[00:20:21] later fate decreed that she died in
[00:20:25] her arms. And finally, another loss, when
[00:20:29] after 20 years of living together, Stasys
[00:20:33] decides to take his own life. An
[00:20:37] awful trauma and yet another such
[00:20:40] loss, but returning to the motives, as she says, why
[00:20:44] did I marry Stasys? Because he is
[00:20:47] from Suvalkija, with incredibly beautiful blue eyes.
[00:20:51] And incredibly intelligent and by the way,
[00:20:54] he wrote critical articles about
[00:20:56] the theater and articles that by no means pleased
[00:21:00] everyone, but I don't know, maybe Vincė didn't
[00:21:03] criticize him too much.
[00:21:08] And in America, she remains alone again, the children grow up,
[00:21:11] her daughter Giedrė becomes a chemist, her stepdaughter Augusta becomes
[00:21:15] a doctor, her son Saulius Tomas also
[00:21:18] finishes his studies, but long before his mother's death, in the 80s,
[00:21:22] he dies completely unexpectedly, at around
[00:21:25] 50, she in Santa Barbara, yes, in Santa
[00:21:29] Barbara, which is almost, almost two
[00:21:32] hours drive to the Lithuanian colony, and
[00:21:35] she had neither a car, nor anyone to
[00:21:38] drive her, so that's why it was very
[00:21:41] difficult for her, I truly believe personally that she was very
[00:21:45] sad that she could not participate as
[00:21:48] often as, well, at that time, when I was studying
[00:21:52] with her, our community was really very
[00:21:56] active, yes, very active
[00:21:59] was, and the drama
[00:22:08] that I can't go, because I don't have a way, who will drive
[00:22:12] two hours one way, then two again, then take
[00:22:16] her back, very, very. a sad
[00:22:19] fate,
[00:22:27] she sings, she sings, but she no longer
[00:22:30] sings operas, she said the Chicago Opera doesn't need me anymore, but she sings
[00:22:34] folk songs, which, I say, in emigration probably act like medicine,
[00:22:37] mhm, she participates in women's activities,
[00:22:41] she participates in international organizations, because our
[00:22:44] emigrants, what we probably don't understand enough, did a lot
[00:22:47] to make sure that Lithuania would not be... forgotten, knocking
[00:22:51] on all closed doors, reminding what happened,
[00:22:55] especially when relations with the Soviet Union were
[00:22:57] normalized, so she would then say that I then
[00:23:01] pull out my national costume, I go,
[00:23:04] I draw attention to myself, I represent, then I can
[00:23:08] express the nation's pains, the nation's expectations, by the way,
[00:23:11] and in emigration she is a star, just as she was a star
[00:23:15] in Kaunas, Lithuania, as she was known in Kaunas, so
[00:23:18] in emigration her name preceded her, and it is said that a very
[00:23:21] humble woman who lived truly very humbly and with difficulty,
[00:23:25] when she stepped onto the stage, she transformed into that
[00:23:28] true, true star, true
[00:23:30] queen, and, well, there was probably no Lithuanian who
[00:23:34] didn't know this name, in emigration, precisely
[00:23:49] yes, very
[00:24:05] that's why she had so many scores, which she gave me, but
[00:24:08] I gave them to the music academy, that is, what you have, what else
[00:24:12] I had in the music academy, so I don't need
[00:24:16] to keep anything anymore either.
[00:24:20] We come to the courtyard where Vince visited not only the
[00:24:24] presidency itself, but also this courtyard, and
[00:24:27] now the exhibition "The World
[00:24:30] about Lithuania". Indeed, what was important to Lithuanians
[00:24:34] is to tell the world who we are, that
[00:24:37] we exist at all, and here in the center you can see
[00:24:41] Vetienaitė, Magdalena Vetienaitė, with whom
[00:24:44] Vincė talked a lot about how to represent
[00:24:48] Lithuania, and if Vincė suggested folk songs, then
[00:24:52] folk dances were partly created by Vetienaitė, the famous
[00:24:55] "kepurinė" [cap dance], which is known,
[00:24:59] now it's created, because it was needed quickly, it seems, to present
[00:25:02] Lithuanian folk dances in England, and they say oops, we don't have them. So
[00:25:05] starting with the creation of an image, of which a very important
[00:25:09] part is, of course, the national costume, and by the way,
[00:25:12] already living in America, Vince had a
[00:25:15] huge collection of Lithuanian folk costumes,
[00:25:19] that is, real ones. not just later conceived ones, but real costumes
[00:25:23] from the late 19th and early 20th centuries from various
[00:25:26] regions, and these costumes have now returned to Lithuania to the Vytautas Magnus
[00:25:30] War Museum, well, and probably this whole
[00:25:33] exhibition, where everything is from artists, from
[00:25:37] folk art to athletes,
[00:25:40] and in all of that we can find at least a little bit of Vince,
[00:25:44] in art, yes, a prima donna,
[00:25:47] in politics, while her husband was the Minister
[00:26:00] she wasn't, but the main area is, after all,
[00:26:03] the theater, by the way, she sang in seven languages, she
[00:26:07] lived a long life, she died only in 1997,
[00:26:11] having learned that Lithuania had become independent,
[00:26:14] and her remains travel, return home, I think
[00:26:18] that what we are talking about today, what we did
[00:26:22] here, is probably so that we remember
[00:26:25] that there was such a Vince, she was divine, beautiful,
[00:26:28] cheerful, sincere, dear, well, a person
[00:26:32] who illuminated, who not only
[00:26:35] sang, it wasn't just
[00:26:37] music,
[00:26:39] you know, her life from when she became
[00:26:43] that so-called Prima Donna, as the Kaunasians
[00:26:46] called her, she was in the center of attention, which
[00:26:50] is very, very beautiful and very good for that
[00:26:53] person, all our local Lithuanians respected
[00:26:56] her very much where we lived, for example, she
[00:27:00] was behind closed doors. "mhm, she
[00:27:03] relaxed completely, like
[00:27:06] an athlete, we chose
[00:27:09] guides, both of us would sit like scouts
[00:27:11] in the fields on the ground with crossed
[00:27:15] legs, completely freely, it wasn't that she would sit
[00:27:18] here and maintain that posture, no, we would sit
[00:27:22] on the ground and choose, meaning,
[00:27:25] she really physically helped all
[00:27:29] the guides, choose, a simple one behind closed doors
[00:27:33] was simple, so maybe that is also a person's strength, very, really
[00:27:36] she had a strong character, a strong
[00:27:39] disposition, so such is Vince's story, such
[00:27:43] an extraordinary, long, but meaningful
[00:27:47] story of this woman, so thank you for traveling,
[00:27:50] thank you very much, thank you to you too, thank you, it was truly interesting and sometimes
[00:27:54] a little bit of goosebumps ran through my body, listening and thinking,
[00:27:58] that there are so many parallels with today, and some kind of
[00:28:01] threats and... other things and an impressive
[00:28:03] woman,
[00:28:11] after the tour, I asked Edgar and Gerūtas what surprised
[00:28:14] them, what new things they learned about Vinci Jonuškaitė
[00:28:17] Zaunienė and, what will they perhaps tell about them
[00:28:21] selves in 100 years. About Vinci
[00:28:24] Januškaitė Zaunienė I knew a little, because
[00:28:28] naturally, growing up in a musical environment, coming from that
[00:28:30] land. you can't not know, you can't not know about
[00:28:34] the singer's competition, you can't not know that there was such
[00:28:37] a personality, of course, I knew who
[00:28:40] Vinci was and how important a personality she
[00:28:43] was in the development of the Lithuanian National
[00:28:46] Opera, after all, there is even a vocalists' competition
[00:28:50] named after her organized
[00:28:53] at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater,
[00:28:56] so I know what a wonderful Carmen she was, and it's very
[00:29:00] important that her... voice resonated not only on opera
[00:29:04] stages, but also on public issues, which
[00:29:07] I, frankly, at the moment miss
[00:29:11] from many artists and singers, let's say,
[00:29:14] but such details, such an
[00:29:18] interestingness, a narrative,
[00:29:21] let's say, and all those comical situations
[00:29:24] in concerts, and of course her complex,
[00:29:27] dramatic part of life, it just gave me
[00:29:31] goosebumps. in my head, everything was like a movie, like
[00:29:35] a drama, unfolding while listening, an extraordinary
[00:29:39] personality, of course, the story
[00:29:42] about that failed concert,
[00:29:45] maybe it resonated with some of my own
[00:30:01] a kind of connection with her as a colleague
[00:30:04] and and and and I know very well what it means to be
[00:30:08] on stage and and and and and to
[00:30:11] create roles, but of course
[00:30:14] the fact that a person who has experienced so much is still able
[00:30:18] to sing and continue her solo career, well, that is
[00:30:21] truly something I would not wish for myself or
[00:30:25] any of my colleagues to experience what
[00:30:28] Vince and the performers of her generation
[00:30:30] experienced. "Thank God that such
[00:30:33] women exist, that such women
[00:30:37] existed, and that we can look up to such women today, and sometimes
[00:30:41] it seems like we're moving mountains, but when you hear such
[00:30:45] stories, you realize how many more mountains still need
[00:30:47] to be moved, women, especially
[00:30:50] those pre-war personalities, they
[00:30:54] deserve a brighter spotlight
[00:30:57] and..."