LOVE DRINK

The score points to the hand of a true master: its style is brilliant, so it represents the best example of a buff opera. The enthusiastic verdict of the Milan audience after the premiere in 1832 was confirmed on other stages - in a dozen years this opera conquered the world.

Today, the Love Drink is one of the pillars of the opera's “iron repertoire”. The work bears the stamp of genius: it does not lack purely comic scenes, but they are not intended only to provoke carefree laughter. The composer perfectly empathizes with any situation of the libretto, accurately creating the musical characteristics of the characters. The masterpiece bel canta created by Gaetan Donizetti, brilliantly directed in Opera Nova by Krzysztof Nazar, impresses with the beauty of the music and the characters credibly portrayed.

Says director Krzysztof Nazar:

(...) the opera tells about the age-old problem arising from the difference between woman and man, about different characters and ways of seeing the world, also about relations between people, about fidelity to one's convictions, the variability of nature, the maturation of feelings. It is only that it is told not in the Dostoevsky dimension, but much more serenely and from a position of understanding for the inadequacy of the ridiculousness of the other man.

Perhaps this is also the reason for the difficulty of how to treat this story contained in the libretto. Is it a farce - but it's not scathing and yet it's not really a farce? Or as a story told with lightness about our imperfections that accompany our whole life (...).

I think that a big stage — even with an intimate piece — can always be filled with the appeal of being stage protagonists. Besides, in addition to the leading figures, an equally important function can be performed in this opera by the choir, which witnesses the stage events. And since in Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz the choir is 60 people, it must necessarily be activated in such a way as to clearly and significantly participate and accompany the vicissitudes of the main characters of the drama.

In opera and ballet, not only is the technical perfection of the performers the most important, it also matters how it was “used” by the staging. Therefore, I try, using the principles of stage art, to say something more about the heroes, and not just focus on showing their purely vocal abilities. I strive for each character to live their own life, to have their own character and to prove their necessity on the stage. This is how a fictional world is created, governed by its own expression, created for its needs.

Performance-laureate of the Jan Kiepura Nation for the best musical performance of 2009.