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OF ALL THE NOISES KNOWN TO MAN, OPERA IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE No.12/26.06
- victorshramko
- Jun 26
- 4 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
(Molière - genius French comedy writer)
Good fortune and my profession as a concert pianist (before I started teaching others) caused me to visit so many countries and interesting places. I could say I was lucky to be happy!
But just as it is impossible even in the longest life to play or even listen to all the drops/notes of the Great Ocean of Music, it is also impossible to visit all the places one would like to see.
I am an opera lover. Why? As a child, I was really very poor, but played the piano quite well. I took advantage of the opportunity to have free tickets to the Warsaw Opera. I spent many evenings there with my mother, listening to and watching all the performances over and over again. Opera and ballet performances seemed to be the fairy tales of my childhood.
Of course, later I visited various opera theaters, including the most famous. I loved visiting London's Royal Covent Garden and admiring the many excellent operatic and ballet performances there. Spectacles with stars from so many countries, in both traditional and modern staging, but always with taste and meaning. Really – mastery.
Of course, also my 'family' opera, the magnificent Grand Theatre in Warsaw, built in 1825 and rebuilt from the ruins after WWII in 1965, is one of my favorites.
However, in summer you can also choose the charming Royal Opera Theater in The Bath Park in Warsaw.
Or go further, to the Baltic coast, to the famous resort of Sopot. There is one of the most beautiful open-air amphitheaters in Europe, the Forest Opera. In the middle of the forest, with audience capacity of 5047 seats and an orchestra pit for 110 musicians. Performances of the nearby Baltic Opera from Gdańsk are staged there.
Another summer operatic destination is more to the north, in the land of a 1000 lakes, Finland. In the magnificent interiors (and acoustics!) of the medieval Castle of St. Olaf in Savonlinna, we can follow the fate of Macbeth or Turandot.
Open-air opera spectacles also reign supreme in the summer in the native homeland of opera, in Italy. In the 19th century, two greatest Italian opera composers fought for supremacy among themselves and with the German – Richard Wagner (1813-1883). Their names – Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) and Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901).
Nowadays in the summer, Puccini reigns in his beloved Tuscany. He settled and composed his greatest operas there. At his very popular, yearly festival in Torre del Lago, between Lucca and the seashore, crowds of tourists come to listen to his famous operas during summer holidays.
At that time, Verdi's music reigns at the impressive amphitheater in Verona (excellent location for spectacles of his operas Nabucco or Aida) or in his native Milan. There, in the legendary La Scala (3600 seats), built in 1778, for Princess Beatrice alla Scala as a gift from her husband, Prince Visconti. Traveling around the world for quite a long time, I never was in La Scala, the legend of my youth. Finally, a few years ago, I came to Milan and of course to the dreamed La Scala. And it was worth dreaming!
Giuseppe Verdi was the son of a poor shopkeeper. He began his music studies with a local church organist. When he tried to enter the Milan Conservatory, he was rejected. After some years, when his operas had already become a worldwide success, the same Conservatory offered him the Honorary Doctorate and named the school after him. Verdi refused vehemently: 'You didn't want me young, so you won't have me old.'
But 'The absent ones are not right'. Nowadays the Milan G. Verdi's Music Conservatory is now proud of the name of the famous countryman, despite his unconditional refusal.
The summer festival of the 3rd operatic genius of the 19th century, Richard Wagner, born the same year as Verdi (1813), is closer to my home, in Bayreuth, (Germany, Bavaria). There are two opera theaters in this town: the first one from the 18th century is famous for its beauty, and the second one, almost 150 years younger, from the 19th century, famous for Wagner's Festival but also – his jealousy. But it is an anecdote for a separate story. I haven't been there yet and I dream of going there.
To be honest, I have another dream about opera. My grandma, Irena, a Polish pianist, was born in the amazing city of Odessa. There is the beautiful 19th-century opera house located next to the famous (from movie and history) Potemkin Steps.
Nowadays Odessa and its theatre, as well as the whole country, Ukraine, are under continuous bombing atrocities.
There was a saying: 'When the cannons play, the muses fall silent'. However, artists and the public do not want to remain silent. A 10-ton heavy concrete, protective enclosure was built there. They are still trying to play and listen to music.
My dream is that one day the cannons will fall silent and the muses will find their free voice again. And maybe I will be able to visit the place of my grandma and say:
'Music is a weapon in the war against unhappiness' as nowadays said Jason Mraz, singer & lyricist from America.
Enough words (and bombing!).
Let us play. Again!: R. Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries
Written by
Cezary Owerkowicz
Co-founder of Kuwait Music Academy and
Director of Treasure of Talents Festival in Kuwait
