JOB (HIOB) / KRZESIMIR DĘBSKI (WORLD PREMIERE)

Online concert on the YouTube channel of the Polish Royal Opera.

World premiere. The piece was commissioned by the Polish Royal Opera.

I myself wrote a new drama with Greek form, Christian spirit, eternal content […]. A drama about suffering: “Job”.

This is how the twenty-year-old Karol Wojtyła wrote about his work in 1940 in a letter to his friend – Mieczysław Kotlarczyk. The young playwright read the Old Testament tale of innocent suffering and the steadfastness of faith from a Christological perspective, and saw its parallel with the fate of Poland plunged in the horrors of war. As part of the celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the birth of the Polish Pope and the 80^th anniversary of the creation of this extremely mature and symbol-rich text, the Polish Royal Opera invites you to a contemporary musical interpretation of the story of Job.

Krzesimir Dębski’s opera is full of bold juxtapositions of archaic language with modern orchestration techniques and the captivating sound of the choir’s commentary, reminiscent of a Greek tragedy. It is not without significance that the premiere of the work, originally planned for May 2020, had to be postponed due to the pandemic that spread across almost the entire world. For that same reason, it was not possible to present the concert version of the work in October 2020. Perhaps, however, all these difficult circumstances will strengthen the universal message of the work. It is, as the composer himself emphasizes, “an opera […] about the fate of a man who has fallen into misfortunes and then arises from this fall”.

MUSIC DIRECTOR TADEUSZ KAROLAK

DIRECTED BY TOMASZ CYZ
SET DESIGNER NATALIA KITAMIKADO
CHOREOGRAPHY NATALIA DINGES
LIGHTING DESIGN KATARZYNA ŁUSZCZYK
CHORUS MASTER LILIANNA KRYCH
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR KAROL SZWECH
AASSISTANT DIRECTOR SŁAWOMIR JURCZAK
II ASSISTANT DIRECTOR AGNIESZKA KOZŁOWSKA
STAGE MANAGERS TATIANA HEMPEL–GIERLACH, DOROTA LACHOWICZ

CAST

JOB  ADAM KRUSZEWSKI
ELIHU  JAKUB BOROWCZYK
JOB’S WIFE  ANETA ŁUKASZEWICZ
CHORUS MEMBER I, ELIPHAZ  SYLWESTER SMULCZYŃSKI
CHORUS MEMBER II  PAWEŁ KOWALEWSKI
CHORUS MEMBER III, ZOPHAR  MACIEJ GRONEK
CHORUS MEMBER IV, STABLE HAND GRZEGORZ ŻOŁYNIAK
THE FALLEN, SHEPHERD, SHEPHERD’S HAND, SERVANT, BILDAD  LESZEK ŚWIDZIŃSKI
PROLOGOS / EPILOGOS  PAWEŁ MICHALCZUK
CHILD FRANCISZEK KACZOROWSKI

THE CHORUS OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA

THE ORCHESTRA OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA

CONDUCTOR TADEUSZ KAROLAK

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The idea of ​​staging an opera based on the text of Karol Wojtyla’s drama Job (“Hiob”) at the Polish Royal Opera was born over three years ago, at the very beginnings of our institution, while the late Ryszard Peryt was still alive. Wojtyła wrote this work in 1940, in the apocalyptic times of World War II. He gave the subject of the innocent biblical suffering of Job the form of a Greek tragedy, referring to two foundations of European culture, and connected it closely with the history of the fate of his war-torn homeland. I encourage you to read the text by Bishop Michał Janocha included in the program, which outlines the broader context of the creation of Wojtyła’s drama and its universal message. It is hard to resist the feeling that the text, written eighty years ago, only today reveals its novel meanings to us, acquiring particular timeliness.

The premiere of Krzesimir Dębski’s work commissioned by the Polish Royal Opera was to take place during the ceremonial celebrations of the 100th birthday of the Polish Pope in May 2020. The fact that the premiere of the drama, the theme of which is not only human suffering but also the steadfastness of faith, had to be cancelled due to a global pandemic bears particular significance. And yet, the emerging adversities did not stop our attempts to complete the undertaken task.

In these troubled times which have severely tried us all, especially Artists and the whole world of Culture, I invite you to meditate on the Book of Job, on the life of the Polish Pope and the history of Poland. I leave you with the thought of Søren Kierkegaard in mind: “It is not the path which is the difficulty; rather, it is the difficulty which is the path.”

Andrzej Klimczak
Director of the Polish Royal Opera

INTERVIEW WITH KRZESIMIR DĘBSKI
Job is the truth of suffering

Interviewed by Katarzyna Gardzina 

– Let us go back to the point when Director Peryt commissioned you to compose the opera Job.

Somehow it happened that, if I can so put it, Director Peryt took a liking to me. Even before the idea of Job came up, I wrote music to his text Akatyst.

I knew that the Director was sick, and probably he himself – which might sound brutal – felt a bit like Job, though he was still extremely energetic and hardworking, making plans for years ahead for his beloved institution – the Polish Royal Opera. I suppose, however, that he could sense the inevitable coming and commissioned me with a great and, for me, very important task, that is an opera based on the drama by Karol Wojtyła Job. 

I started working on the opera while the Director was still alive and continued writing after his passing, using his directions and notes. He gave me a copy of the drama Job with the abridgements and corrections already introduced by him since if one wanted to present the text in its entirety, the opera would take more than four hours. I also made many more cuts, because we live in a time of rush and comic-pictorial thinking. I was aware that a piece of music must fit into a time frame that is acceptable today. Ultimately, there are two acts, each about fifty minutes long. As for the form, it is a rather classic opera, with arias, choruses, interludes and an overture.

– Was that Director Peryt’s suggestion?

I myself knew that this is how I must approach the matter of the drama so that this difficult and powerful topic may appropriately resonate with the audience. The story of Job is timeless. Suffice it to say that many artists from various fields of art returned to this biblical story throughout the history of European culture. It was captured in literature in a variety of ways by our great poets: Jan Kochanowski, Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński, Juliusz Słowacki, and in Western European literature, for example, by Lord Byron. This theme was also inspiring for many painters such as Hans Dürer. The weight of this topic requires a form that is readable, understandable, emotionally aggressive.

– The plot itself, taken from the Bible, is weak, it is the message that is important and strong.

Yes, the kind of theatre that Karol Wojtyła was involved in – rhapsodic theatre – focused on the word, and the performances lasted many hours. The drama Job was created under occupation when people gathered in their houses in secrecy. I hope that our performance will make clear that the myth of Job, the story of Job, is the truth of suffering. It is the message that, sooner or later, all men shall suffer. Some have to face suffering earlier, at different stages of their life, while others only at its inevitable end.

– Would you tell us about the musical language that you use in Job? It has been said that you are trying to archaise it, what does this technique consist in?

I created my own “biblical idiom” for this work. Of course, we don’t know what the music sounded like in those times, we have to use our imagination. 

Therefore, the biblical fragments are stylised on baroque, medieval and renaissance music. I juxtapose these fragments with contemporary ones and with arias – again, in a quasi-baroque style. I also employ baroque instruments: the lute, the theorbo, percussion instruments, and a harpsichord used very intentionally. On the other hand, I also use very modern percussion instruments. I myself feel like I’m a bit at the “age of Job” so I attempted a certain synthesis of what I know about Early Music and the wonderful works of the masters of past ages.

– Did you compose the score of Job with specific performers in mind?

Indeed. Moreover, when writing the libretto, I expanded the cast a lot, because the drama itself does not provide for a large number of characters. First of all, I developed the only female role, the character of Job’s Wife, who is almost marginal in the drama and definitely more important in my work. The Chorus Members also became emancipated in the opera, as they not only comment on events, but also interact with Job – they scold him, help him or on the contrary, dispirit him even more in his misery, and so does the Wife. For greater dramatic expression, I allowed myself to introduce the character of The Fallen, that is Satan – the Evil One who is the direct cause of the misfortunes of Job. It is he who provokes Yahweh to try a good and righteous person as much as he can bear. It seemed necessary to me to introduce such a personification of evil so that the dramatic conflict is more clearly outlined. The character of Prologos also appears to tell us the whole story. We have a cast of mostly low male voices, baritones, starting with the superb Adam Kruszewski in the role of Job.

– When writing a stage work, do you imagine what kind of a theatrical form it will take during its production?

Of course, when you write an opera or a musical, of which I wrote six, you have to think about what stage action the characters will have to perform. For instance, think that the character in question must enter and have enough musical time to complete his actions. That is why you sometimes need to organize the score in stage time, to “direct” the work in a way, imagining what will happen. Of course, the director then takes the piece into his own hands and may make many changes, but you still have to initiate the action in the phase of composing, set the time for the characters to stand on the theatrical stage. It is an additional difficulty, but also an additional attraction for the composer’s imagination.

INTERVIEW WITH TOMASZ CYZ
The rift of non-existence

Interviewed by Katarzyna Gardzina 

– Who is Job for you: a myth, a symbol or a living man?

He is what Krzesimir Dębski made him, in a musical sense. He is a powerful baritone, very masculine and strong, who faces borderline situations. He is a man in his prime who does not give up – does not want to give up – in this situation. Who wants to believe to the end that what happened, what is happening, has a deeper meaning. And he is looking for an answer, waiting for it.

– What about God? How do you signal – or not – his presence throughout this story?

He is not among the characters listed on the front page of the score. He is also not on the list of characters in Karol Wojtyła’s drama. But it is known that He is talked about all the time. That, just how in real life, we do not see Him, but … I hope that His presence, even in His absence, will still be felt. After all, as we read in the Bible: […] Now my eyes have seen you (Job 42: 5). Yet, as Jung wrote: if Job gains knowledge of God, then God must also learn to know himself.

– While working on your vision of Job, did you return to the original drama by Karol Wojtyła, or maybe only to the source biblical text – the Book of Job? Or maybe to other elaborations of this theme in world art?

For me, the basis is always the musical text: the score with a libretto inscribed in it. This is what I was taught – not only during classes at the Theater Academy in Warsaw – by one of my teachers, Ryszard Peryt. It is the score that defines the horizon of a vision. The director’s responsibility increases when we speak about the very first performance, a world premiere. The point is not, however, not to say anything with your voice, leave no traces of your own. But when the viewer will take his place in the audience of the Stanisławowski Theater in Łazienki Królewskie – or in front of the computer screen, I need (and want!) to think about the fact that the music is going to be something of a shock to him. Even if he is familiar with the works of Krzesimir Dębski, even if he has a suspicion, he knows nothing about what his Job is like, musically speaking. He will hear this music for the first time. Of course, the theme is helpful here. Job is so deeply entrenched in world culture that everyone, almost everyone – has an idea, knows something about the biblical story. Of course, Wojtyła’s approach is peculiar, especially in the second part of the drama. Frequent reading of both this text and the Book of the Bible was indispensable in my work. I have already quoted Answer to Job by Carl Gustav Jung. I found two other extremely important guides: Paweł Śpiewak’s wonderful book The Eternal Job (2019) full of meanings, references and counterpoints, and the chapter Nietykalność (‘Inviolability’) in one of the most important books there are- Szczeliny Istnienia (‘The Rifts of Existence’) (1992) by the recently deceased Jolanta Brach-Czaina. They have shown the story of Job’s suffering in an important new light. A light that was much needed. Finally, at the beginning of my work process, I managed to go through a multi-page (two volumes, over a thousand pages in total) work of the Italian cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi gracefully entitled Job (Polish edition from 2004). Apart from biblical exegesis, reading the Book word for word, Card. Ravasi is not afraid of unorthodox associations – he recognizes the story of Job in other cultures (e.g. Muslim culture), in works of art (for example, in films). But – interestingly, and in some way sadly – does not mention Wojtyła’s Job. A Catholic cardinal does not say a word about Job in his enormous work about a drama by one of the popes, his contemporary. So we have much to accomplish with Job by Wojtyła / Dębski.

– What challenges does a work like Job pose, being so close to rhapsodic theatre in its dramatic form?

Karol Wojtyła’s Job, written in Lent 1940, is typical of the theatre that was closest to the author’s heart – that is, rhapsodic theatre. Here, particular attention is paid to the living word: its meaning, form and sound, while keeping means of expression to a minimum, shifting this burden to the viewer’s imagination. However, there are echoes of Cyprian Kamil Norwid’s poetry (and theatre), and finally – versification and poetics of Stanisław Wyspiański. All this tells us that, on the one hand, the language of this text- just like the libretto of King Roger by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz and Karol Szymanowski- is archaic, not always understandable, devoid of commonness and lightness. But, as always in opera, the music helps. Krzesimir Dębski wrote a very lively, transparent, dense, logical score. If for a moment an analyst awakened in me, I would say that it is closer to an oratorio – which is in no way a weakness or a critique. Or even: it brings Job closer to the stage works of Igor Stravinsky. Theatre must find a solution to it. Theatre has to cope with it.

– The staging of Job was created “in instalments” due to the pandemic, for a very long time. Did this affect your initial concept?

We submitted the scenography designs with Natalia Kitamikado at the beginning of 2020, as required by the work schedule. A year ago we didn’t start working on the stage, nor did the process of constructing scenographic elements or costumes begin, because a dozen or so days before the first rehearsal, the first lockdown related to the pandemic was announced. Then, I put everything back in my folder. When information appeared that there was a chance for premiere performances to be staged in spring 2021, all that had been put down in the designs, in the notes regarding the solutions to individual scenes, came back. And the natural development process began – within the established framework. Opera, unlike dramatic theatre, through shutting down and preparing set design or costumes in advance, requires a different way of working. One which is somewhat two-phase: we need to know a lot about the performance long before we meet live people, live music. Here, the situation is different: we developed the project working only with the score or an ersatz sound synthesized by music notation software. This tension between what is non-existent and what can be sensed is special. This kind of “rift of existence” – or even non-existence – requires additional tenderness.