The Haunted Manor at Baltic Opera

Stagings of Stanislaw Moniuszko’s operas usually leave the viewer with a sense of deep dissatisfaction. Directors usually either tend to follow the once popular path of derivative folklorism, which does not in the least appeal to the sensitivity of the younger generation, or they forcedly update these works, provocatively denying our probably too stereotypical idea of what visual shape these national scores should take.

The British operatic visionary, David Pountney, casting a glance at the score of The Haunted Manor that is entirely devoid of the baggage of Polish prejudices and phobias, shall endeavour to find a different key to this masterpiece. He will transpose the opera from the Sarmatian Republic to Poland of the interwar period, the moment of the first, euphoric gulp of freedom after a long time of the Partitions. At the same time he will construct a series of tableaux referring to the visual icons current at the time, drawn from Young Poland’s painterly images of Stanis?aw Wyspia?ski or W?adys?aw Podkowi?ski. Will the proposal of the English director prove a long awaited skeleton key to the door of a modern and universal theatre of Moniuszko? Time will tell.