Ballet in one act
Production and choreography: KRZYSZTOF PASTOR
Music: HENRYK MIKOŁAJ GÓRECKI
Conductor: WOJCIECH MICHNIEWSKI
Chorus master: BOGDAN GOLA
Dramaturg: DANIEL PRZASTEK
Arrangement of space and lighting design: BERT DALHUYSEN
Costume design: YUMIKO TAKESHIMA
Projections: MIGUEL NIETO
World premiere: 27 March 2011, Polish National Ballet, Warsaw
Krzysztof Pastor's ballet And the rain will pass... is a very personal statement made by the choroegrapher after his return to Poland. Having come back home after many years abroad, he saw in Warsaw more scars and traces of suffering than in any European city. Working on the piece, he took inspiration from literature and films discussing dramatic moments in Polish history. He also drew once again on Henryk Mikołaj Górecki's poignantly dramatic music. Pastor had set ballets to the composer's music before: Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, Warsaw 1994; Amsterdam 1996) and Harpsichord Concerto (Moving Rooms, Amsterdam 2008). This time he chose Górecki's Beatus vir, Quasi una fantasia, and Kleines Requiem für eine Polka.
The new, poetic ballet is the first devised especially for the renewed Polish National Ballet. The title comes from the poem Deszcze (Rains) by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, young Polish poet fallen during the anti-Nazi Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The ballet's first performance made a huge impact at home and abroad. Writing for Tygodnik Powszechny, Daniel Cichy called the piece a 'confrontation with the demons of Poland's latest past and politics of memory dominated by religious patriotism'. 'The Polish National Ballet finally has a piece corresponding to it status and tailored to the abilities and ambitions of a company that is consistently renewing itself. A piece that discusses issues fit for Poland's most important stage and is set to music by a leading composer of the 20th century. Also, a piece that has been excellently produced in every possible aspect,' Cichy concluded.
Running time: ca. 1 h 30 min.
