Dubeneckis, Vladas

(in Russian, Vladimir losifovich Dubenetskii). Born Aug. 24 (Sept. 5), 1888, in Vilnius; died Aug. 10, 1932, in Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad). Lithuanian architect and stage designer.

From 1906 to 1914, Dubeneckis studied under L. N. Benois at the St. Petersburg Academy of the Arts. In 1917 and 1918 he taught at the Petrograd Academy of the Arts. Beginning in 1919 he worked in Lithuania; he taught at the Kaunas Art School from 1921 to 1932. Dubeneckis’ architectural works in Kaunas—the reconstruction of the musical theater (1923), the Hotel Lithuania (1923-25), the university department of medicine (1931-33), and the museums of history and art (1931-36)—exemplify the trend to combine modern techniques with classical architectural principles. His designs for the Kaunas State Theater include sets for Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann (1925), Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet (1925), Wagner’s Lohengrin (1926), and Delibes’ Sylvia (1928).