Series / Opera

A vaudeville is a humorous stage piece made up of light-style songs and dances, whose form and content are meant to put the audience in a good mood. The vaudeville composed by Aleksander Nowak, based on Marcin Wicha’s Nike-awarded book Things I Didn’t Throw Out, is no such thing, though. Wicha’s book is a mournful prosaic rhapsody on the prosaic nature of life and on death as its inseparable component. The author bids farewell to his deceased mother through the process of sorting out the stuff that she left behind.

‘I made up my mind to go gaga for a few weeks and write some verse loosely based on the bios of my family members,’ explains Michał Rusinek, otherwise a serious and reputable literary scholar, translator, and writer. ‘My ancestors were apparently rather ordinary. Still, I am convinced that even a very ordinary family can be viewed from an unusual perspective.

Bloody crime, family tragedy, the force of destiny… The timeless works of ancient playwrights continue to move audiences also today as well as inspiring present-day artists. Aeschylus’ "Oresteia" has thus become the basis for Agata Zubel’s dramopera to a libretto by Maja Kleczewska.

‘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.

Bloody crime, family tragedy, the force of destiny… The timeless works of ancient playwrights continue to move audiences also today as well as inspiring present-day artists. Aeschylus’ "Oresteia" has thus become the basis for Agata Zubel’s dramopera to a libretto by Maja Kleczewska.

A creative clash of such individualities is always a high-risk venture that might only seem fit for a one-time success. Contrary to expectations, collaboration between one of Poland’s most eminent 21st-century composers and one of the best contemporary writers continues to develop, producing ever more surprising results. The two artists chose the opera as the field for their joint experimentation. They approach this genre in all seriousness but without humility… Which brings us to the title of Nowak and Twardoch’s third work, “Pokora” (‘humility’ in Polish).

Drach’s element was the earth. With their next joint project, Aleksander Nowak and Szczepan Twardoch pay homage to water, though the true object of their artistic contemplation is the journey as a longing for change and a quest for meaning in life.

A creative clash of such individualities is always a high-risk venture that might only seem fit for a one-time success. Contrary to expectations, collaboration between one of Poland’s most eminent 21st-century composers and one of the best contemporary writers continues to develop, producing ever more surprising results. The two artists chose the opera as the field for their joint experimentation. They approach this genre in all seriousness but without humility… Which brings us to the title of Nowak and Twardoch’s third work, “Pokora” (‘humility’ in Polish).