PROLOGUE
The action takes place in the estate of Count Šemeta in Medintilti and its surroundings, Žemaitija, in the 19th century. A male chorus sings a pagan incantation: “I'm going to cast out that evil spirit. Get out, you evil spirit, through the bones, through the brain, through all the veins, out of that man, Count Šemeta...". A carriage is heard approaching. Horse galloping.
ACT I
Manor of Count Šemeta. Library room. Professor Wittembach, a pastor and ethnographer, a friend of the old count Šemeta, arrives from Karaliaučius to Count Šemeta's estate in the heart of Žemaitija. The mute servant Francis is waiting for him in the palace library. The professor asks when he will be able to see the young master of the manor, and is surprised that the servant, instead of answering, bows and leaves. On the library shelf, the Professor sees the book he has been looking for for a long time - Catechismus Samogiticus.A doctor, a former military surgeon and veteran, rolls into the library to greet the guest in a wheelchair. He invites the Professor to have dinner together, because the Count is said to be unwell - he has a migraine. The doctor talks about the Count's strange habits, his passion for hunting at night. He also warns that the Count's mother - the old Countess he is treating - has been suffering from a mysterious illness for many years: right after the wedding, she was kidnapped by a bear while hunting and her mind has been clouded ever since. The servant Francis, who saved the countess then, but also lost his promise forever out of fear...Before the doctor has finished his story, the old Countess bursts into the room with disheveled gray hair and a knife in her hand. The servant Francis catches her and tries to stop her. The countess rushes to skin the bear and curses what she imagines is her unborn baby. The doctor pulls out a large pair of scissors and threatens to cut off the Countess's long hair. He believes that this is the only way to tame her. The Doctor and Francis take the Countess out. A professor wonders what's going on in his dead friend's mansion - is it a horrifying dream or an even more sinister reality?Night. A one-eyed Old Woman can be seen in the depth of the scene. She sings a folk song. In order to calm down, the Professor turns to "Catechismus Samogiticus", but is lulled to sleep by Sené's song.The sound of a horse's hooves and the neighing of a horse can be heard. The professor jumps up from his sleep, looks around. Outside the window, he sees a man dressed in black with black gloves. The black guest of the night laughs and disappears. Frightened, the Professor calls the servant Francis for help.Count's room the next morning. After buttoning his shirt, the Count shaves his chest hair. He talks to his Second - the image in the mirror - about the duality of nature, the attraction of the forest, the lust for blood and the longing for love.The Professor enters. The count hastily buttons his shirt, greets the distinguished guest, his father's friend, and reminds him that his wedding with the noblewoman Julia is in three days. The Count extends a gloved hand to the Professor. The professor looks at the black glove, at the Count's eyes, as if remembering something, and gives his hand in confusion. Excusing that he's wearing gloves because he's allergic to dogs and horses, the Count asks how the Professor rested last night. Hearing that he was being played, he laughs at the laughter of the night guest... The Count redirects the speech by jokingly saying that the professor was apparently haunted by the pagan gods living in the woods, and offers to take a walk in the forest together and visit Miss Julia.The Count walks through the forest with the Professor. The professor asks about Julia. The count says that he is particularly fascinated by her white, transparent skin: when she drinks wine, you can see the blood pulsating in her veins, warm and sweet...In the depths of the forest, the one-eyed Old Woman sits by a smoldering fire and sings the same song heard in the Professor's vision. When the Count and the Professor approach the Old Woman, she asks them to put some money in her wallet. The chorus again sings a pagan incantation against the evil spirit. The old woman asks for a second piece of silver, for which she promises to predict the Count's future from the ashes. She says that the Count is standing at a crossroads: if he turns to the right, where Julia lives, disaster will befall him. He will have to go to the left, to the beasts, and become their master. The count is irritated by Sene's prophecies. He hurried through the Professors' Forest and turned right.Lake on the edge of the forest. Julia's residence. Julia swings on a swing and sings about a mermaid, who in the human world is accompanied by only silent pain, about the desire for love and fear ("My cold sister mermaid, it hurts when you walk on the pebbles of the coast...").The Count, his Second, and the Professor approach Julia. Julia hands glasses of red wine and dances barefoot for them. The seagull squawks sharply, the glass falls out of her hands and shatters into small pieces. Julia accidentally pierces her foot. Seeing the blood, the Count greedily sucks his lips into the wound. Terrified, Julia pushes Graf away from her ("What are you doing, Graf?! My blood... It's cold like the mermaids of the lake...").

The unpleasant scene is interrupted by Francis running in. He signals the Count to hurry home - the Countess has a seizure. The Count bids farewell to his fiancee until the wedding on Sunday and leaves. Julia has a bad feeling ("I'm afraid... The count's eyes burned with a yellow flame...")

ACT II

Wedding day. Ballroom. The guests are waiting for the newly arrived couple - Count Šemeta and the noblewoman Julia - and are chatting about the unexpected wedding. The guests dance the polonaise. The doctor serves drinks to the guests. The professor is worried that the youngsters won't be coming back for a long time.The rumble of an approaching carriage can be heard. The guests congratulate the young people. The old Countess, who had been sitting quietly in the hall until then, saw that the Count was holding Julia in her hands, started shouting: "Bear!" and tried to shoot him. Francis enters. The guests are in an uproar. The Doctor grabs the Countess and cuts off her gray hair. The guests whisper about omens of bad fate, the lunar eclipse that will occur at midnight during the full moon.The count apologizes to the guests for the unpleasant incident and invites the Marshal to begin the oration. The professor joins the hands of the young people and says the words of the oath, which are repeated by the Count and Julia. The professor blesses the young people. The joining ceremony is completed by the guests singing a hymn from an old hymn performed in Karaliaučius.The Count toasts to both of their happiness. Julia replies the same and hopes that a special fate awaits them. The Doctor intervenes in the duo of young people - he offers to drink from the young woman's shoe according to the custom of cadets. The count takes off Julia's shoe and marvels at the bloodstain left by the shrapnel-pierced foot. The count is seized by a fierce, hard-to-repress bloodlust ("Oh Julia, my mermaid! It's not true that your blood is cold. I feel it is warm, thick and strong, like expensive wines..."). Julia is increasingly overcome by anxiety, which she tries to suppress and rely on the healing power of love (aria "Calm down, heart! And don't tremble as if you're in a forest...").The guests are slowly getting mad. Three wind ensembles play light party music one after the other. A whirlwind of dancing ensues. During the climax of the frenzy, the one-eyed Old Woman appears in the hall. She offers to be a matchmaker. The guests wonder who she is - a beggar, a homeless person, a witch? The old woman says that she came uninvited to wish the young people not to part not only on this earth, but also in the world of spirits. She tells the Count that the spell has been cast - the Count himself has chosen to travel directly to the lord of the underworld and she herself will accompany him there. The sound of a clay pot breaking is heard. She disappears.After the old woman leaves, the guests dance, sing and rave like nowhere else. Suddenly, a shot is heard. The doctor rushes out in a wheelchair to the garden to see what has happened. He returns with a dead Julia in his arms with a bloody neck. The guests whisper, stunned by the disaster. The old Countess appears in an ancient wedding dress; a pistol in her hands. She looks around, looking for something. The single-shirted Count enters, limping with a shot in the leg. The countess, shouting "Bear!" again, raises her pistol and fires. The count falls dead. Everyone remains standing as if petrified.

EPILOGUE
The professor leaves the Medintiltis manor. Behind the stage can be heard a choir praying for forgiveness and a voice singing farewell: "I leave everything and move away. But the heart takes everything in its path." At the same time, it sounds as if the last sentences of Prospero Mérimée's novel "Loki" are resounding in the Professor's mind in the original language.

"Bear" (2000) is the third opera by Broniaus Kutavičius and the first written for the big opera stage. This is a real "mystical thriller", intriguing with a tense, magical plot of a horror tale, the expression of music, the power of authentic feelings. The opera was created with a libretto by Aušra Marija Sluckaitė-Jurašienė, in which the author interprets the story of the bloody wedding told in Prosper Mérimée's novella "Loki" (1869). It takes the listener to the "wild land" - the wilderness of Žemaitija, where a werewolf count born from incest with a bear falls in love with a countess, and after the wedding night, people find her torn. 19th century In P. Mérimée's work, Žemaitija is depicted as an exotic land, the border of civilization, a world imbued with pagan spells and magic. The composer has admitted that he himself would never have chosen this plot interpreting Lithuania as a "land of barbarians", but he has long dreamed of writing a traditional opera - the kind that were written in the 19th century. This opportunity was provided by A. M. Sluckaitė's reworked plot by P. Mérimée, which interweaves the traditional themes of opera - love, death and fate. The opera was created and staged in 2000. Commissioned by the Vilnius Festival. It was performed on the stage of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater until 2007. The new production of the opera "Lokys" on the KVMT stage is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the composer's birth.