The Merchant of Venice

Opera in three acts and an epilogue
Libretto: John O'Brien after William Shakespeare
World premiere: 18 July 2013, Bregenzer Festspiele
Polish premiere, premiere of this production: 24 October 2014
Co-produced by: Bregenzer Festspiele and Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw
In the original English with Polish surtitles

His appearance in the piano firmament almost 60 years ago was compared with the exploding stardom of Glenn Gould. Claiming that the globe had at least 150 virtuosos better than him and only a few better composers, André Tchaikowsky was wrong in one thing: that such a numerous group played the piano better than he did.

The score of The Merchant of Venice was written with an awareness of the existence of many musical languages. Probably the most important among them was Alban Berg’s style, but one can also sense an affinity with the sound world of Aribert Reimann’s operas. The Merchant delights with its brilliant musical dramaturgy and its characters; written in all seriousness, it can also surprise with a musical joke – for instance in the famous Shakespearian scene of choosing a bride which includes an ironic quotation of the fate motif from Tchaikovsky’s (Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s!) Symphony No. 4.

The world premiere of The Merchant, delayed by over 30 years, directed brilliantly by Keith Warner (the present staging is a co-production with the Bregenz Festival), received the prestigious International Opera Award in April 2014. One could feel totally pleased about this if not for the fact that the productions defeated by Tchaikowsky included Paweł Szymański’s Qudsja Zaher staged by the Polish National Opera in 2013.

Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera