I, Şeküre – concert

Dates

29.06 / 19:00

Dates

29.06 / 19:00

Venue

Aula UAM

Time

1H

Language

Polish with Polish and English subtitles

Tickets

free admission passes – DOWNLOAD

Credits

Music: Aleksander Nowak; libretto: Aleksander Nowak; translation
into English: Waldemar Łyś.

Singers: Joanna Freszel – soprano (Şeküre), Jan Jakub Monowid – countertenor (Meddah), Karol Kozłowski – tenor (Kara); musicians: Yaryna Rak (piano) and string quarter comprising Marcin Suszycki (first violin), Ewa Kozieł-Suszycka (II second violin), Ewa Guzowska (viola), Józef Czarnecki (cello); artistic manager: Marcin Sompoliński. Aleksander Nowak is published by PWM Edition.

 

Aleksander Nowak is published by PWM Edition.

Additional information

Based on the book:
BENIM ADIM KIRMIZI
Copyright © Iletisim Yayincilik A.S., 1998
All rights reserved

Partners

My Name Is Red is the most popular and acclaimed novel by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Noble Prize for Literature in 2006. During Malta Festival Poznań 2023, we will present the libretto and excerpts from the music of I, Şeküre, an opera based on the novel. Commissioned by the Malta Festival, the libretto and music were created by Aleksander Nowak, one of the most interesting Polish composers of the middle generation. The libretto will be read by actor and director Andrzej Chyra, winner of the most important Polish film accolades: Orzeł, Złoty Lew and Złota Kaczka. The opera is coproduced by Malta Festival Poznań and the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków. The concert will be performed on the same day as the ceremony of conferring on Orhan Pamuk the degree of doctor honoris causa of the Adam Mickiewicz University Mickiewicz University, Poznań.

In My Name Is Red, Orhan Pamuk combines a crime intrigue, a love story and an aesthetic and philosophical essay. The plot is set in Istanbul in 1591, under the reign of Sultan Murat III. The main character, Black, is summoned to the imperial capital after a twelve-year absence to help his uncle finish a manuscript. Upon his arrival, he becomes involved in an intrigue of both crime and love. Black’s former beloved, the eponymous Şeküre, is the daughter of his uncle. 

In the past, Black was a member of a workshop of miniaturists and painted illustrations for old Turkish stories. Four of his former brethren, presented as Butterfly, Stork, Olive and Elegant, are hired by his uncle for a secret project supervised by the Sultan himself. They are to create a modern book in the venetian style commemorating the Sultan’s greatness and glory. However, figurative art is forbidden in Islam, which makes the artists work in secret surrounded by growing enmity. The story begins when one of them is murdered. The subject of a painting, its nature and impact, as well as the collision of Middle Eastern and European tradition, is the backdrop for the other plots and provides the key to the criminal mystery. 

The day before the concert I, Şeküre, on 28 June at 5 p.m. we will hold a meeting with Orhan Pamuk, hosted by Michał Nogaś. The meeting will focus on Pamuk’s work and his latest novel, Nights of Plague, published in Polish in May by Wydawnictwo Literackie.

After the meeting, we would like to invite you to a performative lecture titled Tell Me About It. The Turkish Art of Storytelling. Turkologist, story teller and culture animator Agnieszka Ayşen Kaim will talk bout the fascinating Ottoman heritage of telling stories with prose, melodeclamation and songs of epic narratives. These are also referenced by Orhan Pamuk, who weaves into My Name Is Red many parables and tales from the world of Ottoman meddahs and Persian pardedars, of master miniaturists and calligraphers, of sultans, khawajas and dervishes. 

We would also like to invite you to the performance Słowa nad brzegiem wody (Words on water’s edge), a collage of authentic memories, music, poetry and the art of ebru; a tale about two people in love trying to connect the world of Polish and Turkish culture in the 1970s. Please also join us in our Forum hosted by Michał Nogaś. This year, our series of discussions will focus on Turkey, a country torn between the East and the West, between Islam and Islamophobia, immersed in conservatism and postmodernity, caught between yearning for Europe and Euroscepticism. 

__________

Joanna Freszel

Soprano, three-time scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture, Pro Polonia programme, ISA2012, awarded with the Magna cum Laude medal, Młoda Polska [Young Poland] scholarship, Les Orphées d’Or – Prix de la SACD of L’Académie du Disque Lyrique for her debut album real life song. For this album nominated in two categories for the Fryderyk 2016 award. In 2020, she released her second album Śpiewnik polski [A Polish Songbook] (Orphée Classics), and at the end of 2021 – the album Akwarelle [Aquarelles], which is the first recording of complete songs by Grażyna Bacewicz (DUX).

She has performed as Musetta in La Bohème by Puccini, Vénus and a Phrygian woman in Dardanus by Rameau, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte by Mozart, Marguerite in Faust by Gounod, Machine in Nici [Threads] by Wołek, Susanna in Figaro Gets a Divorce by Langer, Psyche in Eros and Psyche by Różycki, Inanna in ahat-ilī by Nowak, Ellenai in Anhelli by Przybylski, Rosina in The Barber of Seville by Rossini or Hanna in The Haunted Manor by Moniuszko.

She is a Polityka Passport Award winner. She received a Coryphaeus award for her participation in A. Nowak’s Drach to the libretto by Szczepan Twardoch and won a Fryderyk award for the recording of the opera ahat-ilī – Sister of Gods by Aleksander Nowak to the words by Olga Tokarczuk.

Awarded in such competition as the Halska Competition, the Szymanowski Competition, the Reszke Competition, Gabor Belvedere, J:opera Voice Competition ISA’12. Finalist of the Viotti Competition.

She has recorded music for films and radio plays. The artist has taken part in the most important festivals in Poland and abroad. She works with the Estonian National Opera, the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw and the Grand Theatre in Poznań.

In 2019, she received the title of Doctor of Musical Arts with honours. She is also a Master of Science in Environmental Protection of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences.

Jan Jakub Monowid

Polish countertenor Jan Jakub Monowid is known for his unique voice, and many roles that he has in the repertoire were composed particularly for him. His role as Dantes Innere Stimme in the world premiere of Inferno by Lucia Ronchetti at Oper Frankfurt was a spectacular success. Called by reviewers a highly interesting, powerful counter…; the fascinating countertenor…; Next season he is scheduled as Tolomeo and will be partnered by Jakub Józef Orlinski in a new production of Julius Cesar at the Wroclaw Opera House. In the present season, he performs in the world premiere of Lucia Ronchetti’s Chronicles of Loneliness at Cologne Philharmonic, as Ottone in L’inoronazione di Poppea at Polish Royal Opera, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro at Warsaw Chamber Opera, Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus in Biala Podlaska Festival. Jan Jakub Monowid also stars as Artur in Tango, the new production by M. Dobrzyński at the Kraków Opera House and Warsaw Chamber Opera, and in the Easter production for Podlaska Opera and Orchestra that will include Via Crucis by P. Łukaszewski. At the concert stage, he will sing in Weihnachtsoratorium at Łódź Philharmonic. Some of Jan Jakub Monowid’s recent engagements include Pompeo in Farnace at Dramma per Musica Festival in Warsaw, Un giovane/voce lontana Superflumina in Antonín Dvořák Theatre in Ostrava. He performed the main part in the world premiere of Keiko Fujiie’s Vermilion Calm, composed especially for his voice, Ramiro in La finta giardiniera, Goffredo in Rinaldo and Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Polish Royal Opera. Jan Jakub Monowid took part in numerous recordings, such as an incredible collection of Polish baroque with works by Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki and Stanisław Sylwester Szarzyński published by Pro Musica Camerata Foundation, Sonnets for countertenor and symphonic orchestra by M. A. Dalbavie, And Farewell Goes Out Sighing by G. Kancheli, Lamentacja and Brewiarz for male soprano and string by Z. Penherski, Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo by B. Britten and Shakespeare’s Sonnets by P. Mykietyn. Jan Jakub Monowid graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw under the tutelage of Professor Jerzy Artysz. He received the Jan Kiepura Theatrical Music Award as The Best Singer and the Second Prize at the Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award in Countertenor Competition.