music

Cezary Duchnowski

libretto

Piotr Jasek

chamber opera for female voice, actor,
electronic media and instruments

Agata Zubel voice
Eryk Lubos actor
Andrzej Bauer cello, computer
Cezary Duchnowski piano, computer, music director
Jacek Kochan percussion, computer
Michał Moc accordion, computer
dj Lenar
Ewa Guziołek-Tubelewicz sound projection
Paweł Hendrich sound projection
Łukasz Twarkowski stage manager, stage design
Piotr Choromański stage design
Marcin Rupociński video projection
Paweł Bielawny video editing cooperation
Wojciech Puś light direction
Karol Przestrzelski technical director

Recorded live on September 22nd, 2009
at the M25 Arts Centre in Warsaw
Warsaw Autumn Festival;
recording and editing by Ewa Guziołek-Tubelewicz
and Cezary Duchnowski

The libretto is based on themes from my short stories, included in the collection “Data ważności” [Expiry Date]. The main plot is borrowed from the short story Martha’s Garden. The form of this short story is almost a ready-made libretto with a distinctive narrative. Two protagonists – a boy and a girl – are leading a dialogue composed of sentences that are not uttered directly to one another, but generically aimed at another person. They speak about dreams, thoughts, requests they would never have the courage to express to a beloved person, even though they would like their confessions to be heard and returned. The resulting plot is a history of love between a poor boy who steals fruit from the garden and a rich girl with her silent acceptance. When their love comes true, they miss their earlier dreams. It was a painful period for them, but the intensity of feelings made it a lot more beautiful than their present.

Piotr Jasek