Detailed information
Composer
Alek Nowak
Duration
80 min.
Libretto
Robert Bolesto
For whom?
youth, adults
Premiere
Premiere at Baltic Opera Gdansk
Where?
Baltic Opera
Creatives
music director
Yaroslav Shemet
director
Agnieszka Smoczyńska
dramaturge
Robert Bolesto
set designer
Jagna Dobesz
costumes
Katarzyna Lewińska
choreography, stage movement
Tomasz Jan Wygoda
lighting director, visual dramaturge
Aleksandr Prowaliński
video projections
Natan Berkowicz
makeup design
Monika Kaleta
chorus master
Agnieszka Długołęcka-Kuraś
curator of projects dedicated to Agnieszka Holland
Michał Merczyński
Maciej Kaczerski
Michał Lewandowski
music director’s assistant
Michael Poll
American conductor and classical guitarist whose work encompasses opera, symphonic, and contemporary music. In 2025, his album with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring Jack Liebeck (Barber's Violin Concerto), and works by David Conte and Byron Adams was released - it was featured on the Apple Music Top 100. Poll has conducted Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto, and Carmen, among others, and is preparing Elizabeth Sikora's Dorian Gray with a libretto by Sir David Pountney. He assisted Franz Welser-Möst in Salzburg. As a guitarist, he has given concerts at the Barbican Hall, Wigmore Hall, and Panama.
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, the Academy of Music in Poznan, and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (PhD), among others. He is a Fulbright and Marshall Scholar and is active in the educational initiative SoundingLab.
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, the Academy of Music in Poznan, and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (PhD), among others. He is a Fulbright and Marshall Scholar and is active in the educational initiative SoundingLab.
Description
An opera inspired by "Europa Europa" by Sally Perel and Agnieszka Holland
The production depicts the creation process of a contemporary art exhibition entitled “The Extermination of the Medusas.” The protagonist is the Curator, for whom the exhibits and accompanying events become a vehicle back to ancient times. The Curator identifies with Medusa and undertakes an inner journey through a tragic history. He experiences the cost of renouncing one’s own identity – a price Medusa pays to survive. He asks himself what meaning an exhibition holds in times when the slogan “Never Again” has lost its protective power, and cruelty toward strangers – the “new monsters” – explains playwright and librettist Robert Bolesto.
“The Monster’s Voice” is about a person who, under the threat of death, can never reveal the truth about themselves. They must hide or disguise themselves. Pretend to be someone else. Constantly observe everything and everyone, trust no one. Eventually, at the cost of their life, they become “nobody”. The truth about the titular character is revealed primarily through their voice – high and pure. For most of the time, it must remain suppressed, avoiding natural, upper registers. Only a few times, at moments of particular significance, does it resound fully. The harmony leans toward twelve-tone technique. The orchestration and instrumentation reflect a modernist retreat from Wagnerian monumentalism toward chamber music – adds composer Alek Nowak
We transpose a modern story into the world of myth to reach the roots of fear, hatred, and love, seeking in them timeless truths about humanity – explains the opera’s director, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, We aim to confront operatic form with realism. The staging refers to a documentary-style account of the creation of a museum exhibition about the extermination of the “other,” the “alien,” the “unknown” – by transforming them into a monster and then executing them. The emerging exhibits summon the ghosts of the past, which in turn trigger deeply encoded fears in the main character. The depicted reality slowly begins to warp – revealing primal images inscribed in the world’s history. We come to understand that the libretto’s core is the motif of annihilation and the loss of identity – relevant from the dawn of humanity to today.
The opera is produced by Malta Festival, the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, and the National Centre for Culture.
Alek Nowak’s works are published by PWM Edition
Warning!
The performance includes smoke and strobe lighting.
The production depicts the creation process of a contemporary art exhibition entitled “The Extermination of the Medusas.” The protagonist is the Curator, for whom the exhibits and accompanying events become a vehicle back to ancient times. The Curator identifies with Medusa and undertakes an inner journey through a tragic history. He experiences the cost of renouncing one’s own identity – a price Medusa pays to survive. He asks himself what meaning an exhibition holds in times when the slogan “Never Again” has lost its protective power, and cruelty toward strangers – the “new monsters” – explains playwright and librettist Robert Bolesto.
“The Monster’s Voice” is about a person who, under the threat of death, can never reveal the truth about themselves. They must hide or disguise themselves. Pretend to be someone else. Constantly observe everything and everyone, trust no one. Eventually, at the cost of their life, they become “nobody”. The truth about the titular character is revealed primarily through their voice – high and pure. For most of the time, it must remain suppressed, avoiding natural, upper registers. Only a few times, at moments of particular significance, does it resound fully. The harmony leans toward twelve-tone technique. The orchestration and instrumentation reflect a modernist retreat from Wagnerian monumentalism toward chamber music – adds composer Alek Nowak
We transpose a modern story into the world of myth to reach the roots of fear, hatred, and love, seeking in them timeless truths about humanity – explains the opera’s director, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, We aim to confront operatic form with realism. The staging refers to a documentary-style account of the creation of a museum exhibition about the extermination of the “other,” the “alien,” the “unknown” – by transforming them into a monster and then executing them. The emerging exhibits summon the ghosts of the past, which in turn trigger deeply encoded fears in the main character. The depicted reality slowly begins to warp – revealing primal images inscribed in the world’s history. We come to understand that the libretto’s core is the motif of annihilation and the loss of identity – relevant from the dawn of humanity to today.
The opera is produced by Malta Festival, the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, and the National Centre for Culture.
Alek Nowak’s works are published by PWM Edition
Warning!
The performance includes smoke and strobe lighting.
