Lithuanian opera tenor Virgilijus Noreika bids farewell to big stage

Noreika said he would end his 55-year singing career when he turns 77 in September, shortly after the last grand concert tour of Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, and Alytus.

Accepting the Lithuanian National Culture and Arts Prize for his superior vocal excellence and talent in 2010, Noreika said: "These were the conditions, I was born 20 years too early. I did most of what I could under these circumstances, nothing more could be done."

He said he had over 800 solo performances during his career and 45 opera roles.

Noreika has performed on a number of world theater stages, including the Moscow Grand Theater (more than 50 times), Berlin State Opera, Grand Opera in Paris, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, stages in Stockholm, Sofia, Belgrade, Budapest, Bucharest, Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava, Kiev, Minsk, Tallinn, Riga, Chicago, and elsewhere.

Born in Šiauliai in 1935, he was awarded state prizes in 1960 and 1970, and received the Order of Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas in 1997 and the National Progress Prize in 2007.