Rūta Zaikauskaitė
Rūta Zaikauskaitė-Bartaškienė (mezzo-soprano) was born on June 15th, 1969 in Prienai. There she studied in the Secondary School No 2 and in the Music School. She entered Gruodis High School in 1985 and studied choir conducting, later continued her studies of vocal singing. She graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and received a Master’s degree in solo singing in 1998. A year before graduation she started working as a singer in the Kaunas State Musical Theatre. She successfully creates various music programs and participated in them herself. Rūta collaborates with Naujalis string quartet, Čiurlionis string quartet and other orchestras to create different performances. Rūta organized many various solo singing programs in Kaunas Kaunas State Philharmony, Panevėžys Musical Theatre and in the Artists’ House in Kaunas and Vilnius.
She received the Fortūna diploma in 2010 for her role as Charity in Sweet Charity by Cy Coleman.
Roles in various performances (1995 – 2013):
Anita in West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein,
Public Opinion in Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach,
Nancy in Martha by Flotow,
Maria in The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers,
Eliza in My Fair Lady by Loewe,
Bersi in Andrea Chenier by Giordano,
Prince Orlofsky in The Bat by Strauss,
Siébel in Faust by Gounod,
Paliepė in War and Peace of Mushrooms by Bružaitė,
Barbora in The Queen Bona by Kuprevičius,
Lady of the house in The Bremen Town Musicians by Gennady Gladkov,
Fräulein Kost in Cabaret by Kander, Ebb and Masteroff,
Mother in The Little Longnose by Kutavičius and Palčinskaitė,
Warrior in The Beggar Student by Millöcker,
Hattie in Kiss me, Kate by Cole Porter,
Snail in Spider’s Wedding by Bružaitė,
Silviana in The Merry Widow by Lehár,
Charity in Sweet Charity by Coleman,
Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti,
Czipra in The Gypsy Baron by Strauss,
Pig in The Hat with Ears by Eduard Chagagortian,
Zita in Gianni Schicchi by Puccini.
Other mezzo – soprano performances:
Pergolesi, Rossini and Scarlatti Stabat Mater, Scarlatti Salve Regina, Vivaldi Gloria, Beethoven Mass in C major, Mozart Spatzenmesse and Requiem, Bach Christmas Oratorio.