2023-10-02

It is a musical-literary tale about a quest for identity, truth, and for what makes us human. The new stage work by Aleksander Nowak – which is, at the same time, Radek Rak’s operatic debut – explores the sources of good and evil, fusing reality with mythology and steering towards ‘the left-hand side of the world’. The authors spin a tale about the dual human nature. THE TALE OF THE HEART. FAVOLA IN MUSICA – the album that presents their joint project – will go on sale on 6th October.

‘The heart – a void, a gaping wound. / A wound on the left-hand side of the world.’ It is with his heart that Aleksander Nowak seems to have read Radek Rak’s Nike-awarded novel A Tale of a Serpent’s Heart or a Second Word about Jakób Szela. His opera thus abounds in emotions perfectly comprehensible to a sensitive audience – emotions that are nearly obvious, though the author shuns literalness. Following the operatic triptych that he created in collaboration with Szczepan Twardoch (Drach – Coryphaeus of Polish Music Award; SIREN and POKORA – Fryderyk Award winners), this one of the most original Polish contemporary composers has chosen to remain true to literary inspirations, but this time he selected a different kind of text. Rak the librettist’s oneiric narrative of Jakób Szela, remembered as the leader of the bloody Galician Peasant Uprising of 1846, is by no means an extract from history books. Rather, it becomes a universal myth about freedom and identity. Adam Strug’s singing voice fuses this world with the otherworld. He is accompanied by The Katowice City Singers’ Ensemble ‘Camerata Silesia’, Hubert Zemler (percussion), and AUKSO – Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy.

Known for his ability to build the musical character and narrative of protagonists’ vocal parts in works for voices and instruments, Nowak preserves the mythic universality of the literary original. His musical setting retains the dimension of a fully-fledged fable or fairy-tale. As to the moral, it waits to be discovered, as the title suggests, in the listener’s own heart.

The work, premiered in 2022 during the AUKSODRONE festival in Tychy, is now released as a new item in our OPERA series from ANAKLASIS, which presents outstanding compositions for voices and instruments that venture beyond the tradition-sanctified concept of the operatic genre. As of 6th October, this new release will be available on CDs and in online streaming services.