Chamber opera – musical drama in one Act.
Based on The Cinnamon Shops by Bruno Schulz.
Opera is born at night. In the course of the study of ancient drama in the 16th century. Opera is a study of Bacchanalia. A study of Dionysianism. It is the cult of beauty and ugliness – the leitmotifs of the classical-romantic era.
Musical drama is a search for life in opera. A life whose pulse is expressed in resonance. In response to music. In the space of the musical act. In the anthropological search for man in his most acute senses.
The libretto of The Wedding Night is very traditional: just like in Mozart’s or Rossini’s operas, it is about a love intrigue. However, love in Cinnamon Shops is twisted, grotesque, like a statue of a Greek hero with his head chopped off. It is also tragic like a swan that feeds its young with its own blood. Finally, it is comical, even ridiculous. Flat, superficial and untrue.
Is this the only kind of love we can afford today?
Has it always been this way?
Author’s note
(…) it is an outlaw area, open to all kinds of charlatanism and dilettantism, the domain of all abuses and questionable demiurgical manipulations.
B. Schulz, Treatise on Mannequins or the Second Book of Genesis
Alvarium Choir
Conductor: Magdalena Trzcionkowska
Flute: Zuzanna Dubiszewska
Clarinet: Władysław Lech
Trumpet: Filip Pysz
Piano: Jakub Stefaniak
Violin: Maryla Stasiak
Viola: Marcjan Ciryt
Double bass: Kamil Gosek
Singers:
Adela (soprano): Julia Demus
Jakub (bass): Grzegorz Zajączkowski
Tłujka (mezzo-soprano): Weronika Kulczycka
Rachel (alto): Malwina Borkowicz
Music, libretto, dramaturgy: Jan Lech
Assistant Director: Weronika Kulczycka
Set and costume design: Agnieszka Jankowiak
Production: “Gardzienice” Centre for Theatre Practices, as part of the project Gardzienice – Generator of Hope
