Take a Shot and You Just Might Win

«Excellent scenes, such as the one in which Lisa is on a bridge, hanging somewhere out over the hovering plack bird on in a grey sky and the stage. It is a scene that is at once beautiful and troubling. The character of the Dutchess made completely unfamiliar to us - she looks younger (and we are left in no doubt that this is due to tons of plastic surgery). She is more like a Hollywood diva than a Russian aristrocrat. The Warsaw premier of Chajkowski's Dama Pikowa has entered the pantheon of Mariusz Treliński's other achievements on the opera stage: the question is - is this good or bad?

Treliński treated the work as though his main goal was to "do things differently." This has no doubt led to the works' rejuvination and made it more attractive for viewing (if we presume that a different take would have put the audience to sleep). However, this time around, I found in Treliński's work no revolution resulting from this goal. Although, on the other hand, perhaps the visual attraction (and, let us add, the musical one - because the play is wonderfully scored by the returning Kazimierz Kord) is in and of its' self a sufficient reason to change the habbits of the audience? This same play was already wildly successful in Berlin. Los Angeles went wild for Madame Butterfly, and Washington loved Don Giovanni. Moscow was electrified by King Roger an Oniegin. I was there; I saw it and it was amazing - the level of enthusiasm with which Russians created this Polish opera in their National Opera house. Two years have passed since that visit. Treliński certainly must have some kind of specific ability, since his work speaks to such diverse audiences as Russians and Americans (and the two are polar opposites. As Placido Domingo says, the simple minded American public has little in common with the poor, yet well versed in Opera Russian public).

In Poland, Mariusz Treliński - as though in spite of himself - has been classified as an Opera director. Quite some time has passed since he last made a play or a movie, and his forays into opera have been all the rage. All the more so, since by working with such a well known tenor, he manages to garner more media attention - such as the time during a general rehearsal of Andrei Chenier at the Wielki Theater in Poznań, which the Master Domingo himself deigned to visit (this was also a coproduction with Washington, where Domingo is the director). Critics have rated his work variously. Madame Butterfly was met with joy, and King Rogers was praised. However, late he was accused of more and more. Sometimes, one got the impression that there was some a prior charge to create a new God of Polish opera. The public seems to oblige, always giving Trelińśki a full house whenever he puts anything on. Up to now, they have not been dissapointed.

It all started with Puccini's super hit - Madame Buttefrly. That was a show, albeit a positive shock for most audience members. For the first time, the unhappy Japanese woman who was dumped by an America wasn'therself. This, one of the most famous operas in the world, was not exactly up Treliński's alley in the beginning. Treliński (working with the excellent scenographer Boris F Kudlica, co-other of all of his operas) stripped her of all of her silly stereotypes regarding Japanese women that make the rounds throughout the world; of all of those paper flowers, little houses and banal gestures. He transformed her into a Greek heroine, a nave girl whose feeling were tragically hurt. The effect was shocking. One could see it by looking at the audience - I have never seen such throngs of young people at the opera, although it is of course not true that opera is only for noble old people. I don't know whether Treliński has brought a fresh public into opera for the duration. Perhaps they young people didn't know they'd enjoy opera when they came to see it. In any event, breaking through the crust of tradition, the director managed to reach a whole new group of viewers.

As was said independent of place.

Why? At first glance, because the visuals that he and Kudlica have created simply strike out at us with their beauty. I have seen few things so moving as when Butterfly is on a boat, making her way through the gigantic opera stage, or when the four heros of Oniegin spends a sleepy day on the farm. Or that ball during the Larina, so full of wild, harmonious movement. But this is unlikely to be the answer. Even if the public didn't have to be aware of it, the very picture (Treliński keeps noting that this is his foundation, that the individual think of the context on stage) works on their imagination. The thing is, the director constantly avoids telling moving stories. A paradox? Perhaps, since we supposedly love those kind of stories most. He cleanses opera of concrete time. Also, likely due to the large interior that hosted the majority of his works, he does not allow the actor/singer to act via the face (which is not really that visible anyways). Thanks to this, what appears before us is something equally moving - namely the Drama itself. Yes, making a connection to Greek tragedy. Because the revolution in Andrei Chenier is now not only the Great French Revolution, because Giovanni is not just a Spanish sweettalker who seduces every woman he meets, but rather a loser who is very conscious of life. Because King Roger is challenged by his own being far more than he is troubled by the prayer and he must pay for the truth about himself much like Oedypus had to pay. And so on. You don't need paper flowers and othe tricks for all of this - in fact they would just get in the way. Thanks to this, the performances make an impact where ever they are put on.

And one last thing: who ever has seen more than one performance directed by Treliński will certainly understand that the director also tells the story of the same hero. Oniegin, Giovanni, Madame Butterfly - these are just masks covering one person: the unfullfilled person. And who of us can say that he or she is absolutely fulfilled?

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