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The King's Gravedigger
The King's Gravedigger-opera project
The hero of this opera is a Polish emigrant, working as a grave maker at the German cemetery. His duty is to burn the corpses of the deceased nobles. It was not so long ago, during World War II, that Germany had legalized the burning of the Poles and others in the concentration camps. Today, an illegal Polish emigrant burns the German elite into ashes.
He is in the spiral of madness. Initally, the burning is a kind of catharsis for him, because his ancestors were killed in a concentration camp. It gives him satisfaction, but not for long. He begins to put the ashes of the illegal emigrants into the places prepared for the elite, and uses the ashes of the nobles for the flowers in his garden. Then we realise that the whole theatre is a tomb. The gravedigger wants to burn the world, but stops. What if there is still life, still childhood...What if beauty, and motherhood, are stronger than revenge.
The actor/singer/dancer is a contemporary performer. On stage he doesn't present himself as an Other, but provokes himself to experiencing new modes of living. By means of live electronics and video, the musical environment is established, with the presence of a human being.
The actor's gestures are transformed electronically into sound. Video plays a parallel role to the music. Music will build autonomous senses to confront the meaning of the words. The visuals are not subordinate to the music but confronted by it. In order to create the musical environment of the opera, Polish, German and English languages are used.
The story tells of the relationship between Poles and Germans, and much more. It unravels the whole nation's catharsis. And the healing process is taking place not only literally in the text, but in the music and the video. The story has gained particular poignancy in the context of the recent news concerning the participation of the Poles in burning Jews during World War II.
The libretto is based on a novel by acclaimed Polish writer Jerzy Lukosz.
Listen to fragment
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upcoming concerts
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December 7th, 2008
Maastricht Intro In situ
VocaalLab
Opalescence | Theater aan het Vrijthof - Maastricht - NL
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December 13th, 2008
de Luister Salon
Exospheres | Korzo - Den Haag - NL
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April 29th, 2009
Sounds New
Jane Chapman
Thimble trance | Canterbury - UK
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