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08 - 28/06/2015

Photo: M. Zakrzewski
GalleryPhoto: M. Zakrzewski

The most awaited premiere of Malta Festival Poznań 2015 is today! The premiere performance of The Magic Mountain opera based on the novel by Thomas Mann will start today at 19h00. The opera is a work of four artists: composer Paweł Mykietyn, playwright Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk, visual artist Mirosław Bałka, as well as actor and director Andrzej Chyra. The libretto has been based on a novel originally written in 1924, which describes the path to intellectual, emotional and spiritual maturity of Hans Castorp at Berghof in Davos.

The form of the opera is unconventional. Traditional opera, with singers on the stage and musicians playing in the pit is according to Paweł Mykietyn, “an archaic situation. For that reason I opted for electronics. Also, I think that for the contemporary audience the role of the opera is played by the cinema. So, when writing a 21st century opera I wanted to achieve a cinematic sound. It’s not that I want the score to be reminiscent of film, but rather for it to include various “natural” sounds - for example Clavdia Chauchat slamming the door”.

Andrzej Chyra talked about his work on the opera to Mike Urbaniak from Wysokie Obcasy magazine: “Everyone who read The Magic Mountain has their own image of it and I am afraid that those who love particular storylines of the book will leave my opera disappointed. I know that I while directing The Magic Mountain I should be a magician, but I don’t know if I am. I also know that theatre greats such as Jerzy Grzegorzewski or Krystian Lupa have attempted it and both of them gave up. And I, in all my insolence, am still climbing this mountain”.