STRASZNY DWÓR at Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa, Moniuszko Auditorium

A national opera written by a composer deprived of his country (but not his nation!) at a time of waiting for a watershed and dwelling upon the fall of the January Uprising. Hence, everything is sort of unreal, idealized: the manor, the idyllic characters, the comedy intrigue whose sources we can find in both Maiden Vows by Aleksander Fredro and the immortal Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz. When we watch this opera – about the two who were afraid of a clock – staged by master director Grabowski, our soul is immediately relieved. And feel this soul we must when the mazurka, the polonaise, the dumkas resound, all that familiarity of Stanis?aw Moniuszko’s music which has been our national baggage, part of our collective emotional memory – or maybe a curse, too – for nearly 150 years. But it seems like forever...