If you need more evidence
that Penderecki has abandoned his radical
language of the 1960s then here it is.
Ubu Rex remains however a scathing
modern fairy tale - a morality without
direct preaching. A smiling puppet master
seems to pull aside the curtains and
invites you to watch the knaves and
fools pursuing power. 'A mad world my
masters' indeed. This is an opera that
combines elements of two other operas:
Prokofiev's The Love of Three Oranges
and the absurdist anti-war The
Tigers by Havergal Brian.
Penderecki's encountered
Ubu Roi in 1963, when he attended a
performance by the Stockholm Puppet
Theatre. The original Ubu Roi was produced
for puppet theatre in the 1888 farce
Les Polonaises performed by Alfred
Jarry and colleagues.
Mr and Mrs Ubu kill
King Wenceslas, rise to absolute power,
abuse it and are supplanted. They combine
elements of the Ceausescus, the Marcoses
and the Macbeths. That they survive
at the end and set sail looking for
realms worthy of their irrepressible
qualities serves as warning. However
appalling they may be they also combine
elements of Svejk and Till - or at least
they do in this music where they are
projected as a lucky but homicidal Punch
and Judy. This is after all designated
as an opera buffa.
It is sung in Jarry’s
original German which will probably
help the opera to 'travel'. The booklet,
which runs to 210 pages, has full translations
side by side in English and Polish.
The booklet slides into a card slip-case
alongside a double-width CD box. It
is packed with colour photographs of
the Warsaw production. There are artist
profiles as well. On the downside, pages
29 to 38 have already fallen out of
my copy; better binding required please.
The booklet and CD cover use the poster
design by Grzegorz Laszczuk.
Amid the murderous
knockabout by the yobs (mercenaries)
and the Ubus you get touching moments
such as Act I Scene 3 which has the
queen telling the King of her dream
of Ubu's treachery and assassination
of the Royal family. It is finely done
with cleanly lyrical writing contrasting
with the plotting and intended bloodletting
of scene 4. The revolutionary yobs are
hall-marked by language but also by
eloquent abrasively humorous touches
such as when Mrs Ubu serves the yobs
their favourite food .... from a bucket.
Not for the last time
on CD 2 at tr. 1 6.00 we hear an echo
of the Rite of Spring in the
orchestral part. In tracks 2 and 3 of
CD2 we sense a Mussorgskian grimness
as well as the massive weight of choral
singing. The Intermezzo is uncharacteristically
(for an intermezzo) aggressive in mood
- a determined scherzo preparing the
way for scene 4 (War). This represents
the conflict between Ubu's forces and
the Russians now teamed with Bucksheelas,
the surviving son of the royal family
slaughtered by Ubu.
Act I scene 4 is a
good example of Penderecki's use of
operatic convention borrowed from Beethoven
(Fidelio), Mozart (Don Giovanni and
Magic Flute) and Strauss. This is juxtaposed
with some smashing pompous brass writing
which struts out from the pages of Prokofiev
(the Oranges march), Kodály (Janos)
and Shchedrin's The Decembrists.
It also adds much fifing as well as
the jingling of the stahlspiel. Those
strutting brass figures which are to
become an idée fixe throughout
the two hours of the opera recall Panufnik
but an with an Imperial brag. This is
soon undermined by bile and disillusion
- a flavour more readily associated
with Kurt Weill - and by the return
of opulent Straussian ensembles. Weill’s
timbre is also threaded through the
writing of the epilogue as the Ubus,
survivors to the last, with their mercenaries
sail off exchanging ambivalent remarks
about Germany and Poland. Overall this
work portrays Ubu's discomfiture as
well as his indefatigable self-image
- his vision of power - a vision uncooled
by defeat and disappointment.
This set preserves
the world premiere recording taken down
live at its Warsaw premiere to celebrate
the composer's 70th birthday. The recording
ends in enthusiastic applause.
The microphones captures
every creak and cackle, laugh and snort,
audience cough and clapping amid the
bustle of a very active and varied musical
core. Spatial effects and stage movements
are rendered with what sounds like utmost
fidelity.
This is the fourth
and last (to date) of the Penderecki
operas. The first, as many will recall
from its coincidental appearance at
about the same time as Ken Russell's
controversial film, is The Devils
of Loudun. It was premiered at Hamburg
in 1969. Next came Paradise Lost
(after Milton) given in Chicago
in 1978 and then Die Schwarze Maske
after the play by Gerhart Hauptmann
(Salzburg Festival, 1986). Ubu Roi
was
premiered by Bavarian Opera and the
Polish premiere was staged in Łódź
in 1993.
On 18 April an Air
Polonia aircraft took off from Okecie
airport with nearly three hundred performers
of the Polish National Opera on board.
Their destination was London. There
they gave a series of guest performances
at Sadler's Wells to coincide with Poland's
accession to the European Union. The
programme included two performances
of Stanislaw Moniuszko's The Haunted
Manor, a concert version of Szymanowski's
King Roger as well as two performances
of Ubu Rex.
Kaspszyk has also recorded
King Roger with CD Accord as
well as the recently released complete
‘The Haunted Manor’ by Stanislaw
Moniuszko (EMI Classics - anyone
who has this set care to offer us a
review please?).
This present Polish
recording of Ubu Rex is a significant
set. For anyone intrigued by contemporary
opera, by the prolific output of Penderecki
and by modern comic-satirical opera
this is an essential purchase. A de
luxe presentation too.
Rob Barnett
Track Layout
CD1
PROLOG 1.39 W drodze do Polski (Ubu,
Ubica, Najemnicy, Bardior)
ACT I
Scena 1 8.19 Loze Panstwa Ubu (Ubu,
Ubica, Najemnicy, Bardior, Goscie)
Scena 2 9.53 Wielkie zarcie (Ubu, Ubica,
Najemnicy, Bardior, Goscie)
Scena 3 9.19 U króla (Ubu, Król
Waclaw, Rozamunda, Byczyslaw, Boleslaw,
Wladyslaw)
Scena 4 8.18 Spisek (Ubu, Ubica, Najemnicy,
Bardior, Goscie)
Scena 5 14.24 Wielka parada i królobójstwo
(Król Waclaw, Rozamunda, Byczyslaw,
Boleslaw, Wladyslaw, Bardior, Ubu, Najemnicy,
Lud, Ubica)
CD 2
ACT II
Scena 1 19.12 Pierwsze królewskie
kroki (Ubu, Ubica, Bardior, Wladimirowicz,
Szlachta, Najemnicy, Sedzia, Czlonkowie
Rady Finansowej, Lud)
Scena 2 9.34 U cara (Car, Bardior, Bojarzy)
Scena 3 11.40 Pobór podatków
(Stanislaw, 3 chlopi, Najemnicy, Poslaniec,
Ubu, Ubica)
Intermezzo 2.13
Scena 4 15.43 Wojna (Zolnierze polscy,
Armia rosyjska, Ubu, Najemnicy, General
Lascy, Poslaniec, Bardior, Car)
Scena 5 8.16 Ucieczka (Ubu, Ubica, Najemnicy,
Zolnierze polscy)
EPILOG 3.06 Na pelnym morzu (Ubu, Ubica,
Najemnicy)
Penderecki - really
good career overview at:-
http://www.krakow2000.pl/wydarzenia/kpenderecki_98/penderecki_a.html
Details Of The Warsaw
Premiere
Ubu Rex
Ceremonial opening of the 2003 / 2004
season
Celebrating the composer's 70th birthday
2, 5 October 2003, Thursday, Sunday
7-9:20 p.m. (Moniuszko Hall)
Opera in two acts
Premiere of this production – 2 October
2003
Performance in German with projected
Polish supertitles
Libretto – Jerzy Jarocki and Krzysztof
Penderecki after Alfred Jarry’s play
Conductor
- Jacek Kaspszyk
Director – Krzysztof Warlikowski
Designer – Małgorzata Szczęśniak
Video projections - Denis Guéguin
Choreography – Saar Magal
Chorus Master - Bogdan Gola Lighting
Designer – Felice Ross
Cast: Paweł
Wunder (Pa Ubu), Ligita Rackauskaite
[5 Oct], Anna Lubańska [2 Oct]
(Ma Ubu), Józef Frakstein [2 Oct], Piotr
Nowacki [5 Oct] (King Wenceslas), Izabella
Kłosińska [2 Oct], Dorota
Radomska [5 Oct] (The Queen), Anna Karasińska
(Boleslas), Jeanette Bożałek
(Ladislas), Rafał Bartmiński
[2 Oct], Stanisław Kowalski [5
Oct](Prince Boggerlas), Mieczysław
Milun (The Tsar), Rafał Siwek (The
Tsarina), Piotr Nowacki (Bordure), Robert
Dymowski (General Laskey), Adam Kruszewski,
Andrzej Witlewski (Stanisław Leszczyński),
Lech Łotocki (Messenger)
Male Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatr
Wielki – Polish National Opera
The
CDAccord catalogue
Chorus of Polish National Opera, Warsaw/Bogdan
Gola 