The King's Gravedigger - Presentation

Synopsis

Katarzyna Glowicka, Composer (Polish);
Based on an original monodrama by Jerzy Lukosz, Librettist (Polish)
Conductor: Gerry Cornelius

Listen to music from this piece...

A gravedigger works at a German cemetery, burning the corpses of the German nobility. His is a strange, solitary, subversive existence; musing on the wreckage of his life, substituting the ashes of illegal immigrants for the noblemen in the grand graves, and using the ashes of the privileged in his garden for flowers.

It transpires that the gravedigger is a Polish emigrant; a refugee from the concentration camps of World War II where, in a savage reversal of his present situation, Germany had legalized the burning of Poles and other nations. The burning of German corpses is a catharsis for him, but not for long. The audience is drawn into his nightmare, a tomb in which the gravedigger wishes to burn the whole world...

Katarzyna Glowicka is a 23-year-old Polish composer. She is adapting The King's Gravedigger from an original text by Jerzy Lukosz. They believe that this opera should contribute to the healing process that is required on both sides, Polish and German, before Poland joins the European Community.

Katarzyna's goal is to create a complete world for a lone performer, where gesture is transformed electronically into sound. As the performer is provoked into new modes of experience by the environment that he inhabits, so the audience is enfolded into his consciousness. But take care - this may be an unsafe and disturbing place to remain for too long.

This piece draws on the Polish legacy of Grotowski and the Poor Theatre, using advanced technology to create an immersive and challenging event.

Casting at the Workshop

Anna Dennis Soprano
Emma Selway Alto
Omar Ebrahim Solo Baritone

Repititeur: Stephen de Pledge

Instrumentation

Oboe, Clarinet, Soprano Sax, Horn, 2 X Trombones, 2 Percussion, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, Piano