: _ opera rara 2009

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A SMALL EL MANIFESTO

First of all: Good circulation.

The idea of creating a year-round opera series based on the ambitious and triumphant productions on the stages of the most important opera theatres and festivals in Italy, France, Great Britain and Germany is a bold idea of bringing to Krakow the freshest works that are currently circulating in Europe. The concept of importing complete stage productions and their co-productions from renowned theatres and festivals should bear fruit in exchanging ideas and integrating theatre and opera artists as well as musicians with the view to constantly raising the level of opera culture in the region and enriching the range of cultural events with those on the highest international level. Its aim is to also draw excellent productions and acclaimed world artists to Krakow and to contribute to the development of culture and music tourism.

Secondly: Yes, we can!

Krakow has excellent musicians, dancers, stage designers and other designers and technicians. The vocalists from Capella Cracoviensis can sing in Hercules. The dancers from Cracovia Danza can take part in Orpheus. Then later they can travel the world and promote our city while working with the greatest talents. Impossible? Not at all! Jay Kay of Jamiroquai was “floored” at the last “Wianki” by the visual effects prepared by Temporary Stage Design – that is “Bangkok” and “Mickey” from Krakow and offered to work together with them (he was actually second to do that – the London Sinfonietta was first after seeing them “in action” at the Sacrum Profanum festival). Brilliant – we want more!

Thirdly: Fresh blood.

We are using unconventional methods to gain a new audience. We want to show that the world of opera is not boring, clichéd, closed or elitist. Opera is entertainment. It does, in fact, give an opportunity to commune with real genius, not just that promoted by the media. We are trying to draw people because we know they will stay. Let them come for the first time to see “the muscle man” from the poster and leave in love with Vivaldi, the voices of Genaux and Jarousski. Next time they will come not because of some “looker” on a billboard, but to see Dumestre who will lead Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.

Last but not least.

Opera Rara is an excellent addition to the rich selection of the most acclaimed performers of Early Music gathered by the Misteria Paschalia festival, which is currently recognized as one of the most important Early Music festivals in Europe because of its excellent performing artists, cohesive programme, and the rare phenomenon of combining long-running projects into an Easter context. The programme of the first Opera Rara series is the result of nearly two years of talks with the managers of the best foreign groups and theatres with the aim of strengthening the image of the city as a world-class co-producer of the best festivals and opera shows.

WHO IS WHO?

Filip Berkowicz – artistic director & Robert Piaskowski – project manager

RARA

The City of Krakow values opera as an ambitious art form and is aware of the city being perceived as one to offer a complete cultural experience. It is therefore starting a joint initiative opera series named Opera Rara with the Małopolska Province.
The name of the series is not accidental. The adjective “rara” means rare, strange, different, special. For the most part, the performances will be old opera reconstructions or their new interpretations and staging and will present a rare opportunity to create a new context of interpretation for the acclaimed works of the 17th and 18th century as well those that have been forgotten and are being reinstated after centuries of neglect. The stage design will also be different, far from traditional stagecraft solutions. They will combine the latest theatre craft, reconstruct old singing and movement techniques but also make wide use of the latest media and visualisation technologies as modern art forms. The rarity of the operas performed as part of the series is underpinned by their excellent cast. Each performance will feature the most important composers, singers and groups and getting them together in place and time is a monumental logistical challenge. Opera Rara is very often a completely new interpretation of more or less forgotten works. It’s aim is to reconstruct the hidden meanings contained in the music and words, or rather in the combination of the two. Even though singing is one of the most artificial ways of communicating, opera is today becoming one of the most modern languages in which music is delivered to an audience. In itself a complete art form, which should be considered separately and in conjunction with others, it is an excellent example of the collaboration of artists, a model of the world and a tool for defining reality, describing its problems, an attempt to guess real human emotions in different contexts. Opera Rara will be inaugurated by a gala performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s Ercole sul Termodonte in a star-studded cast of leading vocalists and the group Europa Galante - a frequent guest of the Misteria Paschalia festival.

CURRENT NEED FOR CONVENTION

At the start of the 20th century it seemed that opera was a relic dying in the sight of modern art. It was criticised for being conventional, predictable, and artificial. It seemed that it would not stand the test of time in comparison to more modern art forms. However, paradoxically, opera is experiencing an astonishing revival. The biggest opera shows are sold out months in advance and opera festivals have stopped being snobbish high society meetings and have become a vibrant environment full of artists, fashion designers, film and music makers, and businessmen. Opera has been found to offer a lively source of artistic expression, which is constantly evolving but able to maintain the status of the highest calibre art form. Even though today’s opera is provocatively flirting with pop culture, it still remains the most elitist of art forms.
Opera has gone through some magical changes in recent years. It is going through an authentic revival. The reason could be that opera, in spite of serious competition offered by cinema, is the most complete art form in which plot, music and image become one. The modern breakthrough in opera’s image is undoubtedly associated with the emergence of stage designers (congregated mainly around the Paris Opera Bastille), who apart from opera are engaged in film, theatre and fashion. These artists almost simultaneously organise exhibitions in the La Fayette gallery, direct opera and arrange a showroom at the Venice Biennale. This combination produces creations that are new and bold and have little to do with the pomposity of city opera. The stage productions are provoking, rough; emanate ugliness and the intentional application of allegedly clashing aesthetics. However, how can abstract painting go amicably with Handel’s operas or multimedia fish tanks with the story of Dido and Aeneas? Yet the designers of art forms other than theatre or music, artists from outside the closed opera buildings were the first to join the music, which is eternal and universal, with contemporary sensitivity, with new shapes, graphics and solutions and it transpired that opera can be fascinating, experimental and incredibly modern. Today, the most prominent designers, theatres and orchestras are competing in their interpretations of the works of the old masters, in Early as well as Classical and Romantic Opera. The advancements made in current film directing, cinematography, and multimedia have been incorporated into works steeped in stage tradition, increasing their value and making them current. Today opera is a serious contender to cinema, modern theatre and pop concerts, and without loosing its status as a higher art form it is still demanding and intellectually uncompromising. Some of these legendary productions will soon come to Krakow.

LIVELY BAROQUE STAGE PRODUCTIONS IN KRAKOW

A concert version of Ercole sul Termodonte will open the series. One of the most acclaimed Early Music groups – Europa Galante, have accepted an invitation to Krakow, where it will perform under the musical direction of brilliant violinist and conductor – Fabio Biondi. The inauguration invitation was also accepted by renowned artists such as Vivica Genaux, Romina Basso, Maria Grazia Schiavo, Emanuela Galli and undoubtedly the most eminent contemporary countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.

Vivaldi’s Ercole sul Termodonte is just a foretaste of what music lovers will be able to hear and see in the next editions of Opera Rara. As early as the 6th and 7th of June and as part of the Krakow City Celebrations there will be a Polish premiere, which will also be the last world staging, of the famous Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme production by Jeana-Baptiste Lully and Molier directed by Benjamin Lazar and performed by the outstanding Le Poème Harmonique, and conducted by Vincent Dumestre.

More information about the third and fourth editions in 2009 will be available soon.