• Duration: 150'
• Instrumentation: 2S CT 4T Bar B-coro misto-3343-4331-timp batt (6esec) pf-archi
• Year: 2010
• Autor libretta: Krzysztof Koehler
• Type: parts, score, choral parts

“It is more a cantata than an opera – the plot is almost not there, it develops very slowly, to slightly accelerate in Act 3. The music is powerful and deeply rooted in tradition, with traces of Britten, but also Wagner, Szymanowski and Lutosławski (there are two quotations from Już się zmierzcha [Twilight is Near] by Wacław of Szamotuły, which may be considered a tribute to Knapik’s teacher, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. Yet, in contrast to the professor, Knapik does not distort them so much). It is, however, very consistent and sounds tasty – Knapik is a professional in instrumentation”. Dorota Szwarcman, Morskie opowieści (Sea Stories), “Co w duszy gra” (The Sound of the Soul) blog

“The Polish composer, with the help of a librettist Krzysztof Koehler, took from the novel the symbolic and archaic elements that are rooted in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. As if there were not enough biblical symbols in Melville’s text, the authors encrusted the libretto with fragments of other texts from the Old Testament and i.a. Paradise Lost by John Milton. These fragments are mostly devoted to sea monsters, whales, treated as a revelation of the Creator’s might. The plot of Knapic’s opera is reduced to the minimum; it is only a pretext to the rhetoric on human fate and destiny”. Bartosz Kamiński, Religijna przypowieść albo ryba przysposobiona (A religious parable or the fish adapted), „Ruch Muzyczny”