Review: SONGS PAINTED NOW at 45th Stage Song Review

It wasn’t just a performance. It was a collision of worlds—music, painting, and raw human expression, all unfolding in real-time, feeding off each other, shaping and reshaping before our eyes. Five singers, five musicians, five visual artists. Just the moment. Just art in its purest, most electric form.

But don’t be mistaken—this was no random improvisation. The precision, the control, the way each vocal interpretation felt like a carefully crafted masterpiece—it was all by design. Agata Duda-Gracz and Cezary Studniak orchestrated an experience that felt spontaneous yet deeply intentional, allowing space for raw emotion while ensuring every element served the whole.

And the artists? Simply extraordinary. The musicians—Wojciech Długosz, Sebastian Frankiewicz, Łukasz Korybalski, Wojciech Krzak, and Krzysztof Pacan—created a soundscape that pulsed through the space, setting the tone for something both intimate and transcendent. The singers—Artur Caturian, Maja Kleszcz, Tomek Leszczyński, Emose Uhunmwangho, and Justyna Szafran—delivered performances that didn’t just reach the audience; they pierced through us, embedding themselves deep in our bones. And the painters—Jerzy Kosałka, Edyta Olszewska, Piotr Saul, Jacek Sroka, and Olga Szerstobitow—captured it all in real-time, translating music and emotion into color and form, making the ephemeral tangible.

Every note was a brushstroke, every color a sound. You could feel the music bleeding into the paintings, and the paintings breathing life into the voices. And the audience? We weren’t just watching. We were inside it, caught in the crossfire of creation.

It was bold but never overdone. Striking but never forced. It felt like stepping into a dream, or maybe waking up from one. And at the center of it all—this masterful fusion of theatre, music, and visual art, proving that the stage is still a place where boundaries dissolve and magic happens.

As I write this I feel it’s impossible to put into words the energy and chemistry that radiated from the stage. The connection between the performers was palpable, as if the music, the painting, and the emotions were all speaking the same language. It was something you could feel deep in your chest, beyond what words could capture.

One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. An experience I’ll carry with me forever.

Photo: Łukasz Giza