Time 19:00
The Royal Theatre in the Old Orangery in the Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw
BUY TICKET
I shall not wholly die,
and a great part of me will escape the grave.
– wrote Horace, and, in fact, attained immortality thanks to his works. Similarly, the great masters of the opera to whom the performance is dedicated – Stefan Sutkowski, Andrzej Sadowski, and Ryszard Peryt – also remain alive in the works they left behind and in the grateful memory of their pupils and friends. However, in view of the war that has been going on for many months just beyond our eastern border, the performance takes on a broader, universal overtone, reflecting on the meaning of sacrifice in the name of higher values and the sense of human suffering.
The concert presents three moving compositions of the famous Viennese. The performance opens with the sublime, thought-provoking Kyrie KV 341 – a composition in the mournful key of D minor, created in the last years of the Master’s life. It will be followed by the uniquely expressive Maurerische Trauermusik KV 477, a funeral piece written in the summer of 1785. The heart of the performance is the cantata Davide penitente, which is a special kind of re-elaboration of Mozart’s own earlier work. The composer was not so much inspired by the fragments already used, but literally copied the music from the two previously completed mass movements (Kyrie and Gloria from Mass in C minor, KV 427). However, he added new musical content and supplemented them with two arias and the final cadenza. The Latin text of the liturgy used in the original work was replaced by Italian paraphrases of the biblical David psalms, bringing hope that sorrow, fear and despair will be overcome by peace and light.
PROGRAM
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Kyrie KV 341
Maurerische Trauermusik KV 477
Davide penitente KV 469
Coro Alzai le flebili voci al Signor
Coro Cantiam le glorie
Aria Lungi le cure ingrate
Coro Sii pur sempre benigno, oh Dio
Duetto Sorgi, o Signore, e spargi
Aria A te, fra tanti affanni
Coro Se vuoi, puniscimi
Tercetto Tutte le mie speranze
Coro: Chi in Dio sol spera – Di tai pericoli non ha timor
MUSIC DIRECTION KAROL SZWECH
DIRECTION, STAGING ANDRZEJ KLIMCZAK
SET DESIGN MARLENA SKONECZKO
LIGHTING DESIGN PAULINA GÓRAL
VIDEO PROJECTIONS MAREK ZAMOJSKI
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR SŁAWOMIR JURCZAK
STAGE MANAGER AGNIESZKA ORLIKOWSKA
PERFORMERS
IWONA HANDZLIK I SOPRANO
GABRIELA KAMIŃSKA II SOPRANO
JACEK SZPONARSKI TENOR
THE CHORUS OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA
THE ORCHESTRA OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA
JAKUB SZAFRAŃSKI CHORUS MASTER
KAROL SZWECH DYRYGENT
