CARNIVAL CONCERT

“While carnival lasts, there is no other life outside it,” wrote Mikhail M. Bakhtin in his reflections on medieval festive practices. Even today, we wish to celebrate the special character of this period preceding Lent – a time of dance, merriment, and indulgence. We therefore invite you to an evening that will be a feast for the spirit, where the comic intertwines with the tragic, where tears may hide behind bursts of laughter, and where amusement carries within itself profound wisdom.

During the concert, the audience will hear excerpts from the comic operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which brilliantly portray the “world turned upside down.” Nardo from La finta giardiniera will surely delight listeners with his linguistic flair, the flirtatious Cherubino from The Marriage of Figaro will remind us what love tastes like, and Papageno and Papagena will evoke the playful side of passion in their delightful duet from The Magic Flute. The cheerful mood will continue in excerpts from The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini – the master of comic opera – brimming with original musical ideas. The program will also feature famous fragments from Georges Bizet’s Carmen – an opera that, as one of its first reviewers, Théodore de Banville, wrote, was composed “in the divine language that expresses the terrors, the madness, and the celestial longings of the human being, who, made of clay and sky, is but a wanderer and an exile on this earth.” The concert will conclude with the well-known Brindisi from La Traviata – a refined waltz-like toast to love and joy, certain to leave the audience in a truly carnival mood.

PROGRAM

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Overture to the opera Le nozze di Figaro
Aria (Nardo) Con un vezzo all’italiana from the opera La Finta Giardiniera
Aria (Cherubino) Voi che sapete from the opera Le nozze di Figaro
Aria (Tamino) Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön from the opera Die Zauberflöte
Duet (Papageno and Papagena) Pa-pa-pa from the opera Die Zauberflöte

Gioachino Rossini

Overture to the opera Il barbiere di Siviglia
Aria (Almaviva) Ecco ridente in cielo from the opera Il barbiere di Siviglia
Aria (Figaro) Largo al factotum from the opera Il barbiere di Siviglia
Aria (Berta) Il vecchiotto cerca moglie from the opera Il barbiere di Siviglia
Cavatina (Rosina) Una voce poco fa from the opera Il barbiere di Siviglia

Georges Bizet

Overture to the opera Carmen
Habanera (Carmen) L’amour est un oiseau rebelle from the opera Carmen
Aria (Micaela) Je dis que rien ne m’epouvante from the opera Carmen
Torreador Couplets Votre toast from the opera Carmen

Giuseppe Verdi

Brindisi (Libiamo ne’ lieti calici) from the opera La Traviata

PERFORMERS

GABRIELA KAMIŃSKA SOPRANO

ANETA ŁUKASZEWICZ MEZZOSOPRANO

SYLWESTER SMULCZYŃSKI TENOR

WITOLD ŻOŁĄDKIEWICZ BARITONE

THE ORCHESTRA OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA

JERZY WOŁOSIUK CONDUCTOR

KATARZYNA SANOCKA HOST

Duration: approx. 1 h 15 mins

The seats in the auditorium are not numbered.

PLEASE NOTE: The entrance to the Royal Theatre is located on Agrykola street.