VILNIUS — The renowned Lithuanian composer Vytautas Klova died on Thursday in Vilnius. He was 83.

Klova’s most popular work was the opera Pilėnai, which he wrote in 1956. The following year he won the Soviet State Prize for the work.

The opera tells the story of the defense of a castle in Pilėnai from the Teutonic Knights by the Duke Margiris in 1336. Rather than surrender to the enemy, the Lithuanian troops decide to set the castle on fire and commit mass suicide.

Although his classical work was popular — he received another Soviet State Prize in 1970 — he was not prolific. He only wrote five more operas, and, in the tradition of the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, interpreted and wrote harmonies for about 100 traditional Lithuanian folk songs. His other operas include Vaiva (1957), Dukte (1960), Žalgiris (Du kalavijai) (1965), Amerikoniškoji Tragedija (1968), and Ave Vita (1974).

From 1954 to 1994, Kova gave lectures on music theory at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater in Vilnius.