Sun&Sea opera-performance brings beach to Teatro Argentina in Rome

The opera-performance Sun&Sea (Marina), winner of the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale, is staged at Teatro Argentina in Rome until July 4. Created by Lithuanian artists Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, and Lina Lapelytė, the work transforms the theater's orchestra pit into a sandy beach where performers lie and sing about daily life, ecological anxiety, and consumerism. The piece originated from a visit to the Guggenheim Museum New York, whose spiral architecture inspired a landscape viewed from above. The 52-minute performance repeats multiple times between 5 and 9 PM, with songs tied to characters such as an elderly couple applying sunscreen, children with a camera, and a woman knitting. The music references Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach (1984). The work blends visual arts, theater, and opera, challenging traditional boundaries between installation and performance. The ecological theme pervades songs like "Song of the 3D Sisters" but is treated with irony and melancholy rather than utopianism. The piece reflects a Lithuanian artistic tradition of crossing disciplinary borders, as seen in Oskaras Koršunovas's 2016 installation Egle, The Queen of Serpents in a Vilnius hospital. The article is written by Valentina Valentini, professor of performing arts at Sapienza University of Rome.