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Program Notes
Ryžtas Trypia Širdis (Determination Tramples the Heart) is a standalone work excerpted from the final of the two-act opera Julius, written in 2009 and premiered in March 2010. In the scene, set in a displaced persons camp during the years immediately following the end of WWII, the chorus is made up of Lithuanian refugees who are faced with the difficult decision to cross the Atlantic to an uncertain future and give up hope of returning to their home country. The Lithuanian word “ryžtas,” with its fricative sounds emphasized and stretched to allude to the rolling waves of the ocean the group will cross, is repeated and staggered among various sections of the chorus throughout the work.
Baimė kausto mintis - Fear grips the mind
Ryžtas trypia širdis. - Determination tramples the heart.
Gal kitur bus geriau - Maybe elsewhere will be better
Gal kiti bus geri. - Maybe others will be kind.
Čia baisi nežinia. - Here lies the terrible unknown.
Metam raiščius akių - We cast off the blindfold.
Laisvė neša srove, - Freedom is carried by a stream,
Mes ją siurbiam vidun. - And we drink it in.
Ar sugrižti svarbu - Whether it is important to return
Rodys meilė žmonų. - Will be shown by people’s love.
(Text by Marija Simona Šimulynaitė)
— Charles Halka
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