Programme V (Audycja V) opera. Music by the Pole Andrzej Krzanowski to his own libretto, which includes texts from Polish poets. Directed by Natalia Babińska on September 23, 2018 at the ATM studio in Warsaw as part of the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music. Szymon Bywalec conducts the New Music Orchestra (Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej) and singers from the Katowice City Singers’ Ensemble (Camerata Silesia). Assistant conductor was Wojciech Wantulok and choirmaster was Anna Szostak. Tape music by Pawel Hendrich. There is only one solo singer: soprano Joanna Freszel. She is joined in solo roles by two actors who recite Polish poetry: Jerzy Głybin and Przemysław Stippa. Karol Urbański is mime and choreographer for dancers of the Szczecin Castle Opera Ballet. Staging and costume design by Klaudia Klimka; mulitmedia and film by Marian Oslislo, Krzysztof Zygalski, and Tomasz Strojecki; lighting by Piotr Sadlik. Directed for TV by Jacek Dybowski. Performed in Polish + Salve Regina in Latin. Subtitles in Polish and English. Released 2020, disc has 5.1 surround sound. Grade: B

Andrzej Krzanowski, born into a working class family, was known as the “Chopin of the accordion.” He wrote contemporary classical music for the accordion and other forces before dying at age 39. The opera Programme V is his most complicated work. It’s unusual (maybe unique) in that Andrzej served as his own Regiedirector by specifying in the score all elements of the mise-en-scène and multimedia aspects . . .

Sister of Gods opera. “Sister of Gods” translates to ahat-ilī [Akkadian] and Siostra bogów (Polish). The actual title of the opera is “Ahat ilī—siostra bogów.“ The libretto was written in Polish, but then translated into English to improve the marketability of the work. So “ahat ilī—Sister of the Gods” is the name you will likely see most often. I call it “Sister of the Gods” to help you find it in our Alphalist. Music by the Pole Aleksander Nowak. Libretto by Pole Olga Tokarczuk inspired by her own novel Anna in the Tombs of the World, which was in turn inspired by ancient Sumerian myth. This performance, the world premiere of the opera, was directed by Pia Partum in 2018 at the Sacrum-Profanum festival in Kraków, Poland. Stars Urszula Kryger (Ninshubur), Joanna Freszel (Inanna), Ewa Biegas (Ereshkigal), Jan Jakub Monowid (Dumuzi), Łukasz Konieczny (Father 1—grammarian and priest), Bartłomiej Misiuda (Father 2—logician), Sebastian Szumski (Father 3—sociobiologist). Marek Moś conducts AUKSO, the Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy, and the Polish Radio Choir (Choirmaster Maria Piotrawska-Bogalecka). Stage design and costumes by Magdalena Maciejewska; lighting by Jacqueline Sobiszewski; choreography and assistant direction by Agnieszka Dmochowska-Sławiec; video by Agnieszka Beaupre and Patryk Stokłosa; hanging and circling objects by Franciszek Wardyński. Sung in English with some parts in Akkadian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Proto-Slavic, and Aztec. Directed for TV by Andrzei Kosowski. Exhaustive and beautiful keepcase booklet has complete libretto in English and Polish. Subtitles in English and Polish. Released 2020, disc has 5.1 surround sound. Grade: A+