“The Telephone”, “The Medium” / Gian Carlo Menotti
Basen Artystyczny Stage
Gian Carlo Menotti
The Telephone • The Medium
presented under license from G. Schirmer Inc. and Associated Music Publishers, copyright owners
Libretto | Gian Carlo Menotti
Translation | Michał Wojnarowski
PREMIERE 10’th March 2023
Music director/conductor: Kuba Wnuk
Director: Jakub Przebindowski
Set designer: Witold Stefaniak
Multimedia: Hektor Werios
Costume designer: Tomasz Ossoliński
CAST:
The Telephone
LUCY: Aleksandra Borkiewicz-Cłapińska / Katarzyna Drelich
BEN: Damian Wilma / Artur Janda
The Medium
BABA: Roksana Wardenga
MONICA: Natalia Rubiś / Anna Farysej
TOBY: Dominik Mironiuk
MS GOBINEAU: Aleksandra Borkiewicz-Cłapińska / Katarzyna Drelich
MR GOBINEAU: Damian Wilma / Artur Janda
MS NOLAN: Monika Łopuszyńska / Sylwia Pietrzak
flute: Anita Kander-Marchewka
oboe: Mateusz Żurawski
clarinet: Jerzy Matysiak
basson: Małgorzata Wygoda
horn: Konrad Gołda
trumpet: Mikhail Bachyla
violin: Katarzyna Gluza, Jacek Wachnik
violin: Magdalena Gonos
cello: Karol Wachnik
bass: Mateusz Wadowski
percussion: Robin Błaszkiewicz
piano: Olha Bilas, Marta Kostrych
Accompanist: Marta Kostrych / Olha Bilas
The Telephone
opera buffa
Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera “Telephone” is an excellent excuse to look at the phenomena of interpersonal communication in the modern world. Technological progress means that the new and unique opportunities that we use today (Internet, mobile phone, social media) have a strong impact on our relationships, redefining the way we communicate and creating new cultural codes. Technology replaces many existing social forms. We are witnessing changes caused by modern communication tools, publicly available and used by almost all age groups, which on the one hand make everyday life easier, and on the other hand teach assertiveness and lack of empathy.
The staging of the opera “The Telephone” on the stage of the Basen Artystyczny Stage of the Warszawska Opera Kameralna will be an attempt to tell about these new phenomena. The performance in the buffo genre will become a spectacle of borderline with performance, using modern means of staging, such as video-art projections, sound effects imitating the transmission of a mobile phone and the possibility of recording sound via a mobile phone, interaction with the audience.
This performance is targeting a wide audience, with particular emphasis on young people, but also people who use mobile phones – that is, everyone. In a funny way, but not devoid of reflection, we want to consider to what extent the technological revolution, created with human freedom and independence in mind, becomes a tool of addiction and complete or partial enslavement of modern citizens.
The novelty of this performance will be complemented by the set design and costumes referring to the urban lifestyle, urban murals, street art and pop art. A.D. 2023, but also a world where reality mixes with fantasy, using wit, quotes from iconic film styles, and comic books. The story of a man who wants to propose to his beloved woman loses its trivial character in this context, becoming a perfect story about the human dependence on technology.
The Medium
opera in II acts
A moving chamber opera, the theme and content of which fits perfectly into the cinema noir trend. The staging of the opera “The Medium” will be based on all the elements used in cinema of 1940s and 1950s. Strong contrasts of light and shadow, sensual, elegant costumes, spiritualistic séances, night shots in aesthetics – all this conquers the atmosphere like from Alfred Hitchcock’s films, provoking questions about the eternal need of man, which is to seek contact with the surreal world, looking for guidance in magic, tarot, supernatural signs and the limits of this search. Fraud, confusion, belief in the impossible and non-existent – these are the main staging tracks of the opera “The Medium” at the Basen Artystyczny Stage of the Warszawska Opera Kameralna. You don’t play with love, and you must not play with the afterlife either.
