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ORESTEIA
Opera in one act (1965-66, revised in 1989-92)
Conductor: Franck Ollu
Chorus and Orchestra of the Polish National Opera
Composer, civil engineer, architect, and mathematician - Iannis Xenakis. Milan Kundera called Xenakis “the prophet of insensitivity”. The composer himself described his oeuvre as mathematical music. He based his compositions on non-musical structures, including probability theory, laws of kinetics, game theory, Brownian motions. Xenakis’ music is described as strongly abstract, raw, and non-semantic. Xenakis developed the libretto for Oresteia from the original text by Aeschylus, thus invoking his Greek roots and youthful memories. The work blends the sound of contemporary classical music, ancient Greek tragedy, Japanese Noh theatre with the singing heard in Orthodox churches. Michał Zadara’s directorial vision moves the action from the beginnings of Athenian democracy to the times of People’s Poland, but the essence is the same. Oresteia aims to speak about the source of our political identity, about a country emerging from a great war. Poster for the production, designed by Adam Żebrowski
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PLOT
Agamemnon, 1945, summer.
The Second World War has come to an end, and the communist-party is beginning to take power. Formerly landless peasants are receiving land as part of the new government's redistribution policy. The peasants have mixed feelings about taking their former landowners' land. The attraction of the day is a film projection.
Agamemnon, an officer of the non-communist Polish army in the west, returns home after his successful campaigns in the war. He brings Cassandra with him as a mistress: a woman liberated from an internment camp for German nationals. Agamenon's wife Clytemnestra greets her husband in the decorations of the new communist government, which causes his distress.
Another film begins - propaganda about the successes of the Soviet Union. Cassandra prophesies that she and Agamemnon are doomed. Soldiers take Cassandra away and shoot her. Clytemnestra murders her husband. The peasants lament Agamemnon's death, but do not rebel against the new rulers. The powers have seized control.
The Libation Bearers, 1956, spring.
11 years have passed. The Stalinist period is coming to an end and first signals of a post-stalinist thaw can be felt in political and social life. In the meantime, Agamemnon's son Orestes had been taken to prison as a person of bourgeois descent. Agamemnon s former possessions have since been collectivised and turned into a state farm. Farm workers are coming from the fields to eat lunch. Among them is Orestes' sister Electra.
Orestes has returned home to his native village from prison, thanks to the government's amnesty of political prisoners. Electra and Orested swear to murder their motherand her lover Aigisthos. Orestes first kills Aigisthos, then Clytemnestra.
The Graces, 1971, winter.
15 years have passed. The hike of food prices announced in 1970 has caused strikes in factories all over Poland. Orestes has become the director of the state farm. It, too, has been occupied by angry workers, who feel betrayed by the rulers who came to power in 1956. The armed police is ready to intevene and fire at the workers - when Edward Gierek, the first party secretary arrives in order to still the workers' anger. His speech promises better government and better living and work conditions. His secretaries negotiate with the workers and convince them to end the strike.
The conflicts and frustration give way to popular acceptance for the policies of the government. Polish consumptionism enters its first phase, with cars, clean housing and foreign travel being available to common people for the first time since pre-war times.
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