Cultural Monitor
The Grand Theatre… who were open to the world – Iwaszkiewicz and Szymanowski, who came from a region that today lies in Ukraine; a work set in the multicultural space of Mediaeval Sicily, discreetly marked by the Mediterranean myth of Dionysus; finally, a work whose latest production was originally shown at a prestigious Austrian festival by a native British director – this is our key to a modern Europe of Nations! In the 2011/2012 season we want to show you the premieres of two masterpieces from the 1840s: Stanisław Moniuszko’s “Halka” and Richard Wagner’s “Der fliegende Holländer.”
Waldemar Dąbrowski - General Director of the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera
When I invited you to see the premiere of Karol Szymanowski’s “King Roger” directed by Mariusz Treliński in 2000, I said I hoped the production not only would revolutionize the perception of the masterpiece itself, but would also become an impulse for the entire opera world to take an interest in what to my mind is the greatest Polish opera. Luckily my optimistic speculations found confirmation in reality. Consecutive noteworthy productions of “King Roger” – in Wrocław, at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, in Bregenz, St. Petersburg, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Madrid – enabled Szymanowski’s musical mystery play finally to shine in Europe with the brilliance it deserved. In Poland, meanwhile, discussions about opera came out of their musical niche and encompassed widening intellectual circles. The bridge leading us into the 2011/2012 season will be the Bregenz production of “King Roger,” the work of David Pountney, the Warsaw premiere of which will inaugurate Poland’s Presidency in the European Union. Apart from the poeticmusical duo of Schiller and Beethoven, it is truly hard to find a more apt artistic metaphor of the spirit of the continually expanding European Union. A work by two great Poles
64 :: polish market ::
9 /2011
I see the potential value of the premiere of “The Flying Dutchman” in the fact that after more than a decade spent staging a spectacular series of interpretations of Italian and Russian, Polish and French works, Mariusz Treliński is finally stepping into the realm of German opera, and into its pivotal Wagnerian idiom at that. As regards “Halka”, a production entrusted to Natalia Korczakowska, author of an exceptionally good version of Wolfgang Rihm’s “Jakob Lenz,” I have hopes for it as a way of reforming the perception of Moniuszko’s theatre, which is purely Polish though somehow universal as well, and which needs to be wisely and carefully freed of the outdated aesthetics of handlebar moustaches and a style that has been followed for decades. The production of “Medeamaterial” by Pascal Dusapin, the great French opera composer, marks the return of the multi-talented Barbara Wysocka, winner of the Polityka Passport 2010 award which she received for her production of Philip Glass’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” at our theatre. “Medeamaterial” will be a continuation of the “Territories” experimental cycle whose diverse repertoire will also include “Senso,” an opera by the Italian composer Marco Tutino which had its world premiere a few months ago in Palermo. Therefore “Senso” is yet another contribution, after “King Roger,” to the pan-European dimension of opera theatre involving a Polish theme. In this respect, however, it has to make way for the revival of Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Mariusz Kwiecień in the title role. This is the “opera of all operas,”
composed by an Austrian to an Italian’s libretto, its plot set in Spain, the world premiere performed in Prague and then instantly grabbed by a number of European cities, including Warsaw in the time of King Stanisław August Poniatowski. After the previous, more “Italian” season, this year Russian music will be represented very strongly. The ballet premiere of an audience favourite, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” which Krzysztof Pastor has entrusted to Wayne Eagling from Britain and Toer van Schayk from The Netherlands, the three-part ballet The Biblical Parables (the first link in the chain being Sergei Prokofiev’s “The Prodigal Son” to a libretto by Boris Kochno, a friend of Szymanowski’s and later secretary to Diaghilev himself), and finally Igor Stravinsky’s “Le Rossignol” – a work from the borderland of opera and ballet, will be part of a solid bridge connecting eastern and western sensitivity in Warsaw. The strongest span of that bridge will most likely be Andrei Konchalovsky’s production of Sergei Prokofiev’s “War and Peace.” The finale of this season, which is the result – as in previous years – of creative discussions with Mariusz Treliński and Krzysztof Pastor, would not have been possible without the continued building of the system of coproductions with prestigious foreign institutions: the Bregenzer Festspiele, the opera houses of Bologna, Copenhagen, Palermo, St. Petersburg. The effect of this collaboration will – hopefully – contribute significantly to our cultural reality; we will discuss its essence from 13 to 15 October 2011 during the annual international conference of the Opera Europa association the topic: Added Value. I would like to point out that Opera Europa, an association with as many as 117 music institutions as its members, gave the privilege of organizing this conference to our theatre at a special time for our country – the time of Poland’s Presidency in the European Union. This makes it an event of symbolic significance. It will highlight the pace at which the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera has managed – in the course of just the past three seasons – to travel the long road from the status of a barely recognizable opera theatre to a player in the European opera champions league. ::