Dick Bird

The production closest to my heart at the Congress Hall would be La Bohème. It was our first performance there and a deeply cherished memory with Dalia Ibelhauptaitė. I believe it was a true achievement - to create such a beautiful show in a space where none of us knew how to work or even how to approach it. It was also the first time I worked with Lithuanian set builders - Romas (Romualdas Pupkevičius) and his amazing team - and the first show during which we found a common language, one that only grew stronger through future collaborations.

It’s always worth speaking with Dalia. She always starts with her vision for the work - why she wants to stage it, and what it means to her. I remember our first meeting happened while I was stuck in a brutal traffic jam in the Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames in London. After a rehearsal, I was trying to return to my studio, where Dalia was already waiting for me, but the traffic was so bad that our first conversation ended up happening over the phone - me sitting in the car, Dalia waiting in my workshop.

She told me why she wanted to stage La Bohème, and why she wanted to set the production in Paris in the 1950s–60s. It was a beautiful idea: the 1950s were a period, in some ways, stolen from the people of Lithuania. They couldn’t experience it the way more free European countries did at the time. It seemed like a wonderful concept - to present a beautiful opera with young people, while also introducing that era.

I immediately started thinking about the challenges. A set designer, to a certain extent, is also an architect. You have to control space, and it’s much more than just making pretty pictures - you have to create the entire structure behind them. I built a 1:25 scale model of the Congress Hall. This is a vital process for me - it’s how I get to know and understand the space… and then ideas start to emerge about how to make the space work for you. I worked very quickly, and the attic structure became my starting point. It allowed me not only to incorporate all the researched imagery of Paris but also to make the space work for me - hiding countless elements in plain sight.

I called Dalia. She came to the studio - and this time I was there too. Dalia has this wonderful trait: she adores crazy and impractical ideas. And mine was exactly that. She also has a specific, unmistakable kind of shout or squeal that means she’s absolutely thrilled - and that’s what I heard. After that, we began refining the ideas - how to make the model work, how to make it more detailed, more beautiful, and how to fit four distinct scenarios within it. Then I brought my wonderful model to Vilnius, and it became the working document for everyone involved.