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An ancient drama as seen through the eyes of contemporary women-artists: ORESTEIA by Agata Zubel to a libretto by Maja Kleczewska on ANAKLASIS – is already on sale!
2023-05-29
Bloody crime, family tragedy, the force of destiny… The timeless works of ancient playwrights continue to move audiences also today as well as inspiring present-day artists. Aeschylus’ Oresteia has thus become the basis for Agata Zubel’s dramopera to a libretto by Maja Kleczewska. Their vision of the ancient drama has been recorded and released under the ANAKLASIS label on a CD that goes on sale today.
Written in 2011 as a commission from the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, the dramopera Oresteia, directed by Maja Kleczewska, was premiered in that theatre in the following year. Notably, though there were no women performers in ancient dramas, the authors entrusted the parts of both Clytemnestra and Orestes to the excellent Polish actress Danuta Stenka, thus proposing a new way of interpreting that work.
‘Concerns about the purity of the genre are, I believe, unnecessary,’ said Agata Zubel in an interview. And indeed, she is not concerned. Her dramopera Oresteia for soloists, actors, choir, percussion, and electronics boldly juggles with various aesthetics and types of sound. Herself an outstanding singer, as a composer Zubel attaches great importance to the human voice as the most unique of all instruments. Each voice exists, after all, in only one copy.
Interestingly, in Oresteia Stenka personates two opposites – she plays both the killer and the avenger. In this tale about the nature of evil and the vicissitudes of justice, her partners are Anna Zawisza (soprano), Michał Sławecki (countertenor), Tomasz Piluchowski (tenor), and The Polish Radio Choir, as well as percussionists: Krzysztof Niezgoda, Leszek Lorent, and Tamara Kurkiewicz. The spectacle is conducted by Szymon Wyrzykowski.
Oresteia is our next release in the OPERA series, which presents outstanding compositions for voices and instruments, ones that go beyond the tradition-sanctified understanding of the term ‘opera’. The album is now available from the best bookstores and music shops, as well as the virtual shop of the empik chain.
Media patrons: TVP Kultura, Program 2 Polskiego Radia, Culture.pl
Partner: Ruch Muzyczny
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