Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Polish Royal Opera invites you to the 2nd Festival IN TEMPORE REGUM. Music of the Time of Kings, which will be held between the 26th of March and the 2nd of April 2022 in royal venues around Warsaw. During the five festival events, we will hear the compositions of old masters who were active during the reign of kings in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was their work that resounded at Polish courts and Polish churches in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. During the concerts, the outstanding Artists of the Polish Royal Opera and the invited guests specializing in early music performance practice will present both well-known and rarely staged works.
During the inauguration concert, on Saturday, the 26th of March, the Grand Hall of the Royal Castle in Warsaw will be filled with the sound of the most exquisite master of the Baroque – Johann Sebastian Bach. Outstanding soloists together with the Chorus and the Period Instruments Ensemble Capella Regia Polona will perform the secular cantata Laßt uns sorgen, laßt uns tragen BWV 213 dedicated to the son of Augustus III. On the 31st of March, the Royal Theater will feature compositions written by Italian composers for the wife of the last Saxon king on the Polish throne – Queen Maria Josepha of Austria.
Since the Middle Ages, the church has also been an important centre for the development of musical culture. Outstanding works of religious music from the Renaissance and early Baroque periods will be heard on the 1st of April during the concert Psalmodia Sacra. During the festival, we will also hear works that were created at magnate courts. One of the first Polish operas, Agatka, czyli Przyjazd Pana (“Agatha, or the Master’s Arrival”) based on the libretto by Maciej Radziwiłł, was first performed in Nesvizh in the presence of King Stanisław August Poniatowski. The ideas of the Enlightenment, set in the familiar atmosphere of the Polish countryside, delighted the 18th-century audience – just as they will certainly also captivate contemporary spectators.
The festival will be crowned with the serenata Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra by Johann Adolf Hasse, which launched the composer’s excellent career, which included a post at the court of the Polish kings of the Saxon dynasty.
Tickets sale for all concerts of the 2nd Festival IN TEMPORE REGUM. Music in the Time of Kings will start on Friday, the 11th of February at 15:00. We cordially invite you to join us at these events!
