• Instrumentation: S T CT B solo-Att-coro ragazzi-1111-0010-batt ar pf sint-archi (1.1.1.1.1)
• Year: 2001
• Autor libretta: Krzysztof Warlikowski
• Type: parts, score

The opera Ignorant i szaleniec is the work of a creator who perfectly feels the theatre and its possibilities. In a two-act spectacle of great expressive power, the music and the text of the libretto (based on a drama by Thomas Bernhard), play equal roles, just as the staging and set design do. This, 'Ignorant and szaleniec', is a thoroughly modern work, inspiring the intellect and moving the emotions. Mykietyn himself defined it as (...) a tale about an opera diva, performing the role of the Queen of the Night on the stages of the world's greatest operas. (...) At the end of the first act quotations from the 'Magic Flute' begin to appear and we have an opera in an opera. Quotations (in strict keeping with the chronology of the 'Magic Flute') have different functions and they are given in different ways - from barely recognizable fragments of melody, through the use of vocal layers and it clashing with my music, from faithful excerpts from Mozart taken as a 1:1. I also tried to ensure that in the verbal layer the relationship between Bernhard and Schikaneder did not remain without context. Hidden meanings, multiple layers and the ''false bottom'' confirm this thesis in its entirety. Absurd, grotesque, disturbing or shocking words reach the audience in an indirect way, breaking through by force, repetition, changing order and many other methods. The dry fabric of the musical layer is secondary, accompaniment. The words duplicated many times, repeated, broken into pieces - become a carrier of something more than just the meaning attached to them. The metaphorically provocative text highlights the impact of small, but significant musical motifs. Toned down, reduced to a thin battery of resources, the sound layer of the work emphasizes verbal communication, while suggesting a deeper content. Each actor has a task, and every actor uses his or her task fantastically, merging into oneness with the narrative and the musical threads. Mykietyn broke the conventions of the genre, perversely ignoring the habits of Polish opera lovers, but he did not forget about the essence of beautiful music and the clear sound of human voices. At the same time he has opened listeners of his generation and younger to something they ridiculed as an anachronistic bourgeois genre of art.