Krystian Lada’s staging of the opera “D’ARC” shown five times at the Warsaw Rising Museum
Krystian Lada’s staging of the opera “D’ARC” premieres at the Warsaw Uprising Museum on August 1. The show is not simply a tribute to the insurgents – it takes the audience on a journey through musical and theatrical conventions during which the creatives experiment with form and space. Cast features: Agnieszka Grochowska, Dobrawa Czocher, Gabriela Legun and Szymon Komasa.
“D’ARC” is a contemporary opera divided into three time planes and dreams in which three women meet: Joan (Agnieszka Grochowska) – a photographer from Paris, daughter of Polish emigrants; Joanna (Dobrawa Czocher) – Warsaw cellist and insurgent, and Giovanna (Gabriela Legun) – French national heroine, Maid of Orleans. To mark the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, Krystian Lada created a site-specific show covering the space of the Museum with the adjacent Freedom Park (Park Woności) as well as the neighboring architecture, in which the Wola district becomes a portal to the past and future. The audience are immersed in history – they do not watch the opera from the stalls, but they move between the scenes, with every transition being an important element of art.
Krystian Lada’s project is not a classical opera as we know. It combines theater, opera, performing arts and contemporary sculpture. In the musical layer, classical pieces are intertwined with contemporary music and uprising songs. Scores for chamber orchestra and soloists were composed by: Dobrawa Czocher, Teoniki Rożynek, Wojciech Błażejczyk and Rafał Ryterski. The audience will also hear little-known works by the insurgent artist Roman Padlewski and the original composer of minimalist music Julius Eastman, performed by a group of 10 cellists aged 10 to 70. Music Director of the production is Lilianna Krych, and the performers feature the leading contemporary music band Hashtag Ensemble, among others.
There will be four more shows on August 3–6. From October 1, “D’ARC” will be available on the international streaming platform operavision.eu.