ANAKLASIS / katalog / Opera / ANA 029

‘The heart – a void, a gaping wound. / A wound on the left-hand side of the world.’ It is with his heart that Aleksander Nowak seems to have read Radek Rak’s Nike-awarded novel A Tale of a Serpent’s Heart or a Second Word about Jakób Szela. His opera thus abounds in emotions perfectly comprehensible to a sensitive audience – emotions that are nearly obvious, though the author shuns literalness. Following the operatic triptych that he created in collaboration with Szczepan Twardoch (Drach – Coryphaeus of Polish Music Award; Siren and Pokora – Fryderyk Award winners), this one of the most original Polish contemporary composers has chosen to remain true to literary inspirations, but this time he selected a different kind of text. Rak the librettist’s oneiric narrative of Jakób Szela, remembered as the leader of the bloody Galician Peasant Uprising of 1846, is by no means an extract from history books. Rather, it becomes a universal myth about freedom and identity. Adam Strug’s singing voice fuses this world with the otherworld. He is accompanied by The Katowice City Singers’ Ensemble ‘Camerata Silesia’,  Hubert Zemler (percussion), and AUKSO – Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy.