Warsaw. „D’ARC“ opera. „I’m going to the Uprising like to a ball“.
06.08.2024
Copyright: Warsaw. „DAR’C“ opera.
On the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, we met at the Warsaw Uprising Museum – the site commemorating this liberation uprising.
On warm August evenings, we became part of the lives of three women, each of whom, in her own way, talked about her freedom, her desire for freedom, and her vision of freedom in the situation she is in, in the „DAR’C“ opera proposed by Krystian Lada – Director and Originator of this opus.
The audience was divided into three groups, each following its own course of experiencing the stories told by the main characters of this Opera. We were led by the Angels of History with silent megaphones, who at one climactic moment, spoke out.
Silent megaphones could represent the silence of the coalition partners in the aftermath of the Uprising, who refused to help the fighting civilians, only passively tacitly watching the unfolding drama.
Just like we behaved during this extraordinary performance. The greatest tribute to these people is silence because no words can explain, justify, or make sense of these events. Bravo, Krystian Lada.
The Blue Group, of which I had the honour of being a part, began the journey from the Freedom Park, where Joan of Arc on a white horse came to meet us and her destiny. From this point on, the Opera began with Gabriela Legun in the leading role. An extraordinary moment that drew us into the course of events was the the artists mingling with the audience and a while later, in the Rose Garden, we felt the presence of artistic thought of a young Insurgent in the song „Stabat Mater“, which he wrote.
The highlight for me was the imaginary meeting of all three main characters in the first dream, Joan of Arc talking about her thoughts and Joan the Insurgent – played by Dobrawa Czocher, stating that she was a civilian, that no one has asked her opinion whether she wanted to be part of the armed struggle or not; that she wanted to look beautiful and feel beautiful; that she was going to the Uprising like to a ball; that she wanted to continue training her talent and playing the cello. Also, the third very important woman – Joan – granddaughter of Joan the Insurgent in Warsawwho, against her will, was suddenly gifted with history, the dramatic story of her family by receiving negatives of her grandmother’s photographs from the time of the Uprising.
Agnieszka Grochowska – Joan – excelled in her monologues in showing dilemmas, rebellion, rejection, fear and curiosity. „Warsaw, the city of death“; „What are the people in the sewers thinking about“; „Did the people in the sewers love each other when there were so many people around“. We could hear Joan’s voice from her flat in Paris in 2024. It was all the more amazing because just a moment ago, we were at Joan’s concert in her flat in Warsaw in 1944 – and we listened to Dobrawa Czocher’s composition performed by her with the sounds of war in the headphones in the background.
We too could have made a choice, choosing the name of the most important woman in our lives and it may not always have been easy.
Copyright: Warsaw. „DAR’C“ opera.
Throughout the performance we were led by men (Dominik Bobryk | Michał Adam Góral | Wojciech Grudziński); the minimalist aesthetics of movements, music, costumes and words was simply amazing.
The Opera began with an encounter with Joan of Arc and an encounter with Joan of Arc in music concluded the work. The important thing was the seat in the audience at the time. I was lucky enough to be next to a 70 year old and a 10 year old artist playing a piece on the cello The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc, and in a place where the loud baritone voice of Szymon Komasa rang magnificently in the Prelude to The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc, and the fourth Angelof History,who, joining the other three Angels of History leading the groups, danced a fascinating dance in water with wax casts, which the heroines of our Opera had looked at earlier as if they wanted to foretell the future, to know what the future was going to bring.
The dance I had the pleasure of experiencing in Brussels, where Krystian Lada works.
It was a fantastic, minimalist performance in which the main character – for me – Joan, the Insurgent, was dressed in a modest white pleated elegant dress with a red ribbon at the waist (costumes by Natalia Kitamikado) because, without it, there would be no opera theme. The second unquestionable heroine of this performance was the music. Bravo for all the composers: Dobrawa Czocher | Teonika Rożynek | Wojciech Błażejczyk | Rafał Ryterski | Julius Eastman | Roman Padlewski.
Copyright: Warsaw. „DAR’C“ opera.
Bravo as well as to the musical director Lilianna Krych, to the authors of the libretto Anka Herbut | Łukasz Barys, and for Hashtag Ensemble and Match Match Ensemble. The show was produced by the Warsaw Uprising Museum in Warsaw in collaborationwith the Grand Theatre – National Opera.
Iwona Karpińska/ Wrocław