Press excerpts

Kurier Poranny 26/09/2019 Jerzy Doroszkiewicz

[…] This is what is called “the round”. History repeats itself, it is well known. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, it’s the same. The Gypsy Baron‘s dramaturgy presented on the stage of the Bialystok Opera House begins with an overture that could be described as “prophetic”, and ends with an unsurprising finale, typical of an operetta worthy of the name. Audience entertainment is guaranteed by frequent references to the great classics of cinema, such as “Some Like It Hot” or “Gone with the Wind”.

[…] A messed-up van is like a symbol of travelling cinema, just like large-format cinema posters. They constitute a funny commentary on successive scenes and, at the same time, signal to the viewer the change of action.

[…] But before reaching the final, a disturbing idea of great topicality crosses the stage, that of war, which also turns out to be a very amusing game.

[…] Would the imagination of the fighters be the same as that of the builders working on the post-war ruins?  If you have any doubts, simply follow a brief interlude featuring a ballet of cripples that Charlie Chaplin’s Grand Dictator carefully scrutinizes. However, Maria Sartova does not stop exclusively at this somewhat grotesque vision.

Biaystok Online, 23/09/2019 Anna Dycha

The Gypsy Baron at the Podlaska Opera House in Bialystok is a story filmed to the rhythm of the waltz and the csárdás.

The audience is seduced by Strauss’ beautiful music and extremely modern scenography.

[…] Damian Styrna’s scenography surprises us with its surrealist character while being resolutely modern.  It was Maria Sartova’s idea that staged it to escape the sentimental libretto and the rose water. And this bias has paid off, so to speak, because cinema becomes the key to the visual offered by this conception of Strauss’ work.

[…] The costumes designed by Anna Chadaj are particularly beautiful and they bring together the two worlds, namely that of the Hungarian countryside and a Gypsy camp.

Traditionally, csárdás, polkas and waltzes are added, which are not included in the original score. Nothing like this in the production by Maria Sartova. There is only one csárdás and it perfectly accompanies the end of the war.

[…] A verse sounds particularly disturbing and echoes our modern age: “There are too many strangers here”. Migrants, intolerance, all stereotypes are present. Thus an operetta written in the 19th century brings us back to the present day. How to break down the walls that separate us, something that seems impossible to us. The recipe is simple: love in the broadest sense of the word can help us.

Gazeta Wyborcza 15/09/2019 Monika Żmijewska

How do you make fun of an operetta, confuse Strauss with the Coen brothers and Woody Allen, while being faithful to the libretto and score?  

The Gypsy Baron at the Bialystok Opera House is a kind of sentimental mockery, very cinematographic and refreshing. Maria Sartova and her team’s successful bet: how to make fun of cinematographic tricks with a certain malice while preserving the exentricities and tricks of operetta. On the surface, this is an impossible thing, yet… Maria Sartova, who, moreover, is now well known to the public in Bialystok through her recent production of La Boheme, has found an original concept that allows her to dust off the somewhat outdated genre of operetta and give it back a new energy. She plays with it, while remaining faithful to this musical genre, which does not prevent her from creating a relaxed atmosphere that defies the conventions of the style. She walks between eras.  Thus the operetta acquired its letters of nobility and rose to the rank of a resolutely cinematographic work.

[…] However, the apparent cheerfulness and gentleness should not deceive us. There are many bitter notes secretly slipped between the verses, in the dance and in the pantomime. They bring us back to our modernity.

[…] Maria Sartova has made a millefeuille where different motifs are superimposed and where the sad reality makes the fairy tale explode.  Sometimes they are just flashes, unspoken, but, oh how heavy they are with meaning.

[…] It is a perfectly thought-out and thought-out show, worked out in the smallest details, where the spectator’s eye is constantly solicited.  The orchestra plays wonderfully well, the singers at the top of their game take us into the action. However, there are also more sober sequences, without frills, that offer us moments of respite.

[…] It is the Gypsy Baron who draws a bridge between tradition and today’s spectator.

Cameral Music Iwona Karpińska Wrocław

On the evening of the premiere, at the end of the performance, when the conductor was still in the orchestra pit, the audience at Białystok stood up and warmly applauded the artists.

From the very first notes of the Gypsy Baron in Maria Sartova’s staging, the music captured the attention of the audience, who could admire the performance of the performers who had fun playing their roles.  This staging made us understand that not everything was that serious and that the artists were simply playing in a film, in a comedy in costume under the watchful eye of the camera.

On the one hand, we salute Damian Styrna’s “outrageous” scenography, the gestures of Jarosław Staniek and Katarzyna Zielonka, Anna Chajda’s colourful costumes and a bold choice of accessories. On the other hand, an autenthic narrative built around human destinies, expressed in the parts sung by the protagonists. Here, let us pay tribute to the choir of the Opera and Philharmonic Podlaska at Białystok and to its conductor, Violetta Bielecka, who has made the confrontation of two worlds audible and dramatic. Artists who deployed their talents as actors had to double their efforts to attract the audience and thus enhance their presence. It is the music that plays the first violin, so to speak, it is the music that invites us to dance. It is also what makes us laugh and makes us reflect on the values of our world. It is always music that guides our heroes.  We must pay special tribute to Bassem Akiki who, on the evening of the premiere, was the musical director of the Podlaska Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra at Białystok

The Gypsy Baron is the expression of the love of music and cinema, the love of his profession and a certain sensitivity to social injustice.