To commemorate Virgilijus Noreika’s musical legacy, since 2017 an international competition for singers is organized. Virgilijus Noreika has appeared on many stages of the world theatres: Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre (more than 50 times), Berlin State Opera, Paris Grand Opera, Buenos Aires Teatro Colon, Stockholm, Sofia, Belgrade, Budapest, Bucharest, Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava, Kiev, Minsk, Tallinn, Riga, in Opera of Lithuanians of Chicago among others.
The singer portrayed more than 50 roles. Among the roles of the Lithuanian composers – Kazimieras Viktoras Banaitis, Giedrius Kuprevičius, Vytautas Klova, Balys Dvarionas, Vytautas Laurušas – performed the main roles of most famous foreign composer operas: Don Jose (G. Bizet Carmen), Werther (J. Massenet Werther), Edgardo, Nemorino (G. Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor), Lensky (P. Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin), Otello, Alfredo, Duke (G. Verdi Otello, La Traviata, Rigoletto), Cavaradossi, Johnson, Rodolfo (G. Puccini Tosca, Manon Lescaut, La Boheme), Vladimir (A. Borodin Prince Igor), Mozart (N. Rimsky- Korsakov Mozart and Salieri) among others.
The first competition took place in 2017 and had more than 180 applications. The Jury was composed of seven members, from Lithuania, USA, Germany, Finland, Great Britain and Slovenia. The second competition took place in 2020 where 202 applications were registered. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the competition took place in a hybrid version.
The Competition is among prioritized events by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania and funded by Lithuanian Council for Culture.
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater
Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater
The participants should be 18 to 35 years old.
The competition has three rounds.
Every three years
competition
19-26 September, 2026
10 July, 2026
Registration will be executed through the professional music competition administration platform artistDB only. Registration link: artistDB.eu
You will be able to change and update all information you upload during the registration process until 10 July, 2026.
PRE-SELECTION ROUND VIDEO: may be submitted, amended or modified until the end of the registration. The applicant must provide a valid YouTube video performance link of about 10 – 15 minutes, where he/she/they perform a free program (maximum 3 links). Editing of the video recordings is prohibited, but different pieces may be recorded at different times and in different locations.
COMPETITION PROGRAM: should be submitted during the registration process, but can be modified and amended according to the requirements of the competition repertoire by 10 August, 2026.
REGISTRATION FEE: Early registration fee until 1 January, 2026 – 100 Eur. Thereafter – 130 Eur.
Students of the Jury members may participate in the competition, but those Jury members withdraw from the evaluation of their students and can not influence the decisions of other Jury members. Jury members could stop unprofessional performance.
Chosen competition laureates, diploma holders and winners of the special prizes are obliged to take part in the Competition Final concerts of the competition without remuneration.
The Management of the Competition reserves a right to permit all the Competition performances and final concerts to be broadcasted by Radio and Television and to be produced as audio, video, film, CD, tape cassette and vinyl recordings without remuneration to the competitors.
For the competition participants must prepare 6 arias of the main Opera characters, all arias are performed in the original language.
I and II Rounds:
In the I round, it is obligatory to perform two arias by composers from different countries.
In the II round, it is obligatory to perform two arias of your own choice.
Participants can choose the program for the I and II rounds from the recommended composers list:
Daniel Auber • Béla Bartók • Ludwig van Beethoven • Vincenzo Bellini • Alban Berg • Georges Bizet • Hector Berlioz;
• Leonard Bernstein • Arrigo Boito • Alexander Borodin • Benjamin Britten • Alfredo Catalani • Gustave Charpentier • Luigi Cherubini • Francesco Cilea • Domenico Cimarosa • Gaetano Donizetti • Léo Delibes • Balys Dvarionas•Antonín Dvořák;
• Friedrich von Flotow • George Gershwin • Umberto Giordano • Mikhail Glinka • Christoph Willibald Gluck • Charles Gounod • George Frideric Händel • Fromental Halévy • Leoš Janáček • Vytautas Klova • Erich Wolfgang Korngold;
• Bronius Kutavičius • Ruggero Leoncavallo • Pietro Mascagni;
• Jules Massenet • Saverio Mercadante • Gian Carlo Menotti • Giacomo Meyerbeer • Stanisław Moniuszko;
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart • Modest Mussorgsky • Otto Nicolai • Jacques Offenbach • Amilcare Ponchielli • Francis Poulenc • Giacomo Puccini • Henry Purcell • Sergei Rachmaninov • Maurice Ravel • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov • Gioachino Rossini;
• Camille Saint-Saëns • Bedřich Smetana • Richard Strauss • Igor Stravinsky • Ambroise Thomas • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • Giuseppe Verdi • Richard Wagner • Carl Maria von Weber • Riccardo Zandonai.
Final:
Each participant must prepare 2 arias from Operas for the Final selecting them from the list below:
Bellini V.: Norma
Bizet G.: Carmen
Čaikovskij P.: Evgenij Onegin; Pikovaja dama
Donizetti G.: Don Pasquale; L’elisir d’amore; Lucia di Lammermoor
Gounod Ch.: Faust
Gluck Ch.: Orfeo ed Euridice
Leoncavallo R.: Pagliacci
Massenet J.: Manon; Werther
Mozart W.A.: Don Giovanni; Die Zauberflöte; Le nozze di Figaro
Offenbach J.: Les contes d’Hoffmann
Ponchielli A.: La Gioconda; I Lituani
Puccini G.: Gianni Schicchi; La Boheme; Madama Butterfly; Tosca; Turandot
Rossini G.: Il barbiere di Siviglia
Verdi G.: Aida; Don Carlos; Ernani; Il trovatore; La forza del destino; La traviata; Macbeth; Nabucco; Otello; Rigoletto; Un ballo in maschera
Wagner R.: Der fliegende Holländer; Die Walküre; Lohengrin; Tannhäuser
Note:
The program must be performed in the original language, by memory, in original tonalities. All arias are performed with their original recitatives and cabalettas. During the Online registration, participants submit the program of each round and the sequence of performance. Arias can not be repeated in other rounds.
I Prize – 10 000 Eur
II Prize – 6 000 Eur
III Prize – 3 000 Eur
Diploma – each 1000 Eur
Special prizes ant Concert prizes TBA 2025
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