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ANAKLASIS Releases Alek Nowak and Szczepan Twardoch's Pokora. Dramma Giocoso

Oct. 05, 2022

ANAKLASIS has released the final part of Alek Nowak and Szczepan Twardoch's Silesian Trilogy, the album Pokora. Dramma. The project was released as part of the OPERA series from PWM Edition.

Composer Alek Nowak, in collaboration with Szczepan Twardoch, has created this final piece in the vocal-instrumental triptych. The triptych began with Drach. Dramma per musica in 2019, which was then followed by Syrena. Melodrama aeterna in 2020, and it is now complete with Pokora. Dramma giocoso. Drach. Dramma per musica may be seen as “a quasi-mythical tale of eternal return,” and Syrena. Melodrama aeterna as “a fable-like story of the infinite, of perseverance and mystery.”

This third piece in the trilogy completes the series. After the sea voyage into the unknown in Syrena, the artists return to Silesia, the land of Drach, with the tribulations of its great history and the little hardships of everyday life. The protagonists, Agnes (Joanna Freszel) and Alois (Sebastian Szumski), tell the story of life in the consuming grip of power and passion. Performers on the recording include Maciej Frąckiewicz (accordion) and the AUKSO Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy under Marek Moś.


(Click the image above to order Pokora.Dramma Giocoso from ANAKLASIS)

All the three parts of the trilogy deal with aspects of identity; in part, naturally, with the Silesian identity, which is particularly evident in Pokora. "The trilogy-like nature of the cycle will not be obvious, but it will be there," commented Alek Nowak before the opera’s premiere at the AUKSODRONE festival, referring to the connections between Pokora and his earlier settings of Twardoch’s texts. "When I read this text, in the context of Drach and Syrena, I can see a network of links and analogies, not only between these texts, but between them and the world outside, between general history and my own tale: what happens today and what happened one, a hundred, a thousand years ago. [...] In Drach we had cyclicity; in Syrena– mirror-image symmetry; here we find the element of repeatability and of symmetry disturbed.

The OPERA series is available from ANAKLASIS Records. Launched by PWM Edition in 2019, the extensive repertoire of ANAKLASIS includes Polish music of the 20th and 21st centuries, works by recognized and promising artists, featuring excellent performers and outstanding works. 

To learn more about Alek Nowak, visit: pwm.com.pl.

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