Barbare Gutaj - The First Soprano - MARIE MARIANNE - the Voice of FREEDOM, REASON,
and also REPUBLIC (always dressed in the long,
white tied robe with tricoloured sash, decorated with garlands)
Monike Mych - The Second Soprano - MARIE ANTOINETTE - QUEEN of France
Magdalene Nowacka - The Third Soprano - MARIE TERESA
Pawel Skalubie and Piotr Friebe - The First Tenor - the REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Robin Tritschler - The Second Tenor - the OFFICER
Wayne Elington - The Third Tenor - the REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
Wojciech Drabowicz - The First Baritone - Master of ceremony
The Second Baritone - the TROUBLE-MAKER
The Third Baritone - Louis Capet - the KING of France
Other vocal parts:
The Boy 'Honest Bird' (the young REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST)
The Girl 'Madam Antoine' (the young MARIE ANTOINETTE)
The Big mixed CHOIR. The CHOIR is also a circus audience.
Also the CHOIR plays various roles: POLITICIANS, the SOLDIER, CROWDS, etc..
The Big CHOIR of Boys.
Non-vocal parts:
The FIRST CLOWN - Clown with face paint white and tear painted in on the cheek,
dressed in the hat with the dog-ears and one-piece, embroidered with sequins
– costume; the trousers is up to its knees, white stockings,
the black high-heeled shoes. He is carrying the silver trumpet which
for imitating and parodyin
The SECOND CLOWN - the Person-orchestra.
The THIRD CLOWN - the Dwarf, the purpose and a victim of all jokes.
CIRCUS PERFORMERS: TIGHTROPE-WALKERS, ACROBATS, JUGGLERS, VENTRILOQUISI,
the PERSON-GUMA, the CIRCUS PERFORMERS.
When the audience is taking its places in a hall and an atmosphere of anxiety
is prevailing around the auditorium; howling of the wind, howling distant dogs
from time to time and heard an ominous cawing of crows.
House lights are darkened till the middle.
Offstage approaching the sounding of the Revolutionary anthem is heard,
" ca ira ", played on the trumpet which the military kettledrum is accompanying.
On the left scenes ahead of the covered curtain are resulting to the circus
which is making the stage centrally put:
the FIRST CLOWN (imitating the match of the trumpet),
the SECOND CLOWN (with the military kettledrum),
the THIRD CLOWN is romping at the back. They aren't keeping an eye on the audience.
When arenas are reaching the middle, they notice spectators,
they are getting into the pretended brawl, in searches of an output from the right party of arena.
The THIRD CLOWN leaving is nodding.
Lights are going out at all scenes and on the auditorium...
Accessing the conductor to the scene led with spotlight.
The conductor and the orchestra are found on the second stage which
is uplifted on the left arenas. The conductor is folding the bow
and lights are catching fire on desktops of musicians.
The Overture - The Gathering storm.
In the middle of the overture character of music changes
(a fast kettledrum is heralding it), and in full light appears:
the classical circus arena written down into the space of the quadrilateral.
Galleries around of it variously put which the places of
the action are diversifying. There is also a traditional circus entrance
covered by a picture - this way they are entering and artists are leaving.
Thanks to the change in lights and the performance of actors the action
can move into different places: to the Parliament, into the Tuilleries palace,
to streets etc..
Above the circus scene an acrobat is acting on the " Reminding a bird ".
The acrobat is actually acting above the auditorium on the suspended trapezium
to the shoulder. After a bit on the trapezium slung under the second shoulder
a next acrobat is turning up to the trapezium.
A display lasts for outstripping a few acrobats from the trapezium
to the finished trapezium with acrobatics on two trapezia at the same time.
At that time in the one-storey part a display of performances lasts for stages
on pershach (vertical held masts on shoulders placed by acrobats in two levels,
and on their peak display of acrobatics of the next artist).
Displays are unfolding also into different scenes and they last through
the entire overture.
The choir which is representing higher and lower social classes is a circus
audience, he is reacting uncontrollably to next events.
A King is entering and going out of one's way on the rear for surname,
to what extent he can bring himself at howling of the crowd,
he is coming off to his royal box.
When the music is being changed in waltz (music of the Queen),
a Queen is entering and with dignified strut is parading around the arena,
on the way humiliating the THIRD CLOWN which he is trying with it to dance.
In the end he will attach to the King. When the overture is achieving the climax,
the crowd around the arena is spending shouts "Oh" and "Ah" –
into this way reacting to shows of the acrobat.
The End of the Overture.
The Choir is standing up and he is applauding. The King and the Queen are observing
it with the contempt from their box. SECOND CLOWN is going the circus up;
he is drumming and he is finishing with melodramatic blow in the dulcimer.
An illumination is changing and the action is movingoneself to the scene No. 3.
This stage is an artificial garden being found to the right of the circus.
Act I
Scene 1
A singing of the bird is heard. Under the tree of the peach
a swing is standing. Behind the garden wall, on the branch of the oak
a boy is sitting (the Honest Bird). He is repeating the solo of the
flute with tacit whistling. On one of galleries from the rear
lighted window. The scene is happening in the garden.
<........>
This way a beginning of this show described here faithfully behind
the script looks.
What is this show about?
Straight taking hold of the thing it is talking about the French Revolution.
It's portraying the history been good of this insurrectionary
dash having begun from portraying the manor house and the
parliament before the revolution, through inciting to the protest,
very revolution together with its vicissitude i.e. with imprisoning the king,
the escape of the royal family, restoring the monarchy and finally with victory of
the Revolution together with cutting the monarchal family.
About what still?
The French Revolution is a pretext to deliberations about the freedom
and its effects. It's talking also about certain Utopian ideas
which then were initiated and which were continued in next years
in it to a considerable degree in the XX century.
Ideas, which abused socialized against introducing them.
It in the route after all they were telling this revolution
about the collectivization, a famous statement appeared -
'all children are our children', it to needs of the Revolution was
designed for all the same clothes etc. So the description
of the French Revolution is becoming the chance to deliberations
about the freedom, dangers and benefits from it swimming.
Freedoms in every aspect of the life: freedoms of the individual,
freedoms of the society. Of the racial tolerance, the freedom of thoughts,
a freedom of speak, economic freedom and etc..
Poetics of show.
In order in short to describe the poetics of the show one should divide them
in the classes – musical and spectacular.
In of the one first a music is dominating
strictly operatic however which after making alterations will contain
more elements of the rock music and fragments spirituals.
In spectacular layer it will be dominating convention of the multilevel
open air show. Outside the scene, on which the orchestra will be found,
we won't be dealing with the normal scene. Except for a stage on which there
will be an orchestra, we shall deal with a unusual stage.
With the operatic convention it will be intertwining world of the circus
and acrobatics. Hence in the foreground circus arena lined with multifunctional
galleries (depending on the necessity to imitate they will be the Parliament,
the Royal Lock, Wersal, flats of inhabitant of Parises and the like)
and gigantic structures serving for high-altitude acrobatic displays.
The language of the opera and the circus will be alternating
with the language of film (three-dimensional projections on the screen
will be imitating the part of the real world) and of mass show (marches of armies,
battle scenes, the cavalry, carriages and the like) with using the space
formed by streets. Also a space formed by existing buildings e.g. will be used by putting one
of choirs on roofs and terraces of pavilions of Poznan Markets.
A pyrotechnic show which won't be will complement the effect with display of
artificial bonfires. It will be display of pyrotechnic elements woven in into
the action. And in the end of the lighting. It is a very essential element
of the show. In the sky because and on buildings we will be painting with lights.
But we will apply them in the unusual way - instead of to build certain elements
of a film set, we will paint them from land to the height of 3 km into the sky
behind the help of lights. We are making plans for such unusual stage production
efforts quite a lot, but it is hard to describe it with words.
Executors and requisites, and also unusual participants:
The Orchestra - 70 persons
Choir of the Big Theatre - 100 persons
The academic Choir - 50 persons
Boys Choir - 30 persons
London Public Gospel Choir - 15 persons
Ballet - 35 persons
Conductors - 4 persons
Soloists - 14 persons
Stuntmen - 9 persons
Militarians - 120 persons
Technical workers - 100 persons
Horses, carriages, vehicles.
