MEDIATHEK

The opera is the work of four artists: the composer Paweł Mykietyn, the playwright Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk, the visual artist Mirosław Bałka as well as the actor and director Andrzej Chyra. The libretto has been based on the novel by Thomas Mann written in 1924, describing the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual coming of age of Hans Castorp at the Berghof sanatorium in Davos. The interpretation of the Polish artists ascribes the key role to the American, who is mentioned by Mann only at the beginning of the book in one sentence. We find out that the woman dies before Hans arrives, and he takes her room. In the opera, the figure of the American functions as a filter through which we look at the story. Her presence blurs the boarders between life and death and makes The Magic Mountain, as the director puts it: “a story about growing up to death”

This fluidity of boarders is also highlighted by the stage design. In the first act we have an ascetic, vertical structure - an installation which brings to mind ancient pyramids in cross-section. In the second act the installation is laid down - a horizontal labyrinth is created, which communicates the helplessness of the characters and their directionless state.

The whole of the opera has an electronic form and it is constructed on contrasts. It combines electronic music, references to pop and classical music (deformed polyphony), microtonality and natural sounds (for example a passing train, slamming of doors).

The composer was especially interested in the relativity of time – a very important theme in Thomas Mann’s novel itself – the way it “slows down” and “speeds up” (rather than lasting as long as the last one, each subsequent quarter note may be slightly slower). This has the effect of overlapping and mixing of layers, but also of pausing. Each element has its beginning, but then everything starts to blur and at some point the audience loses track of time. This mathematical score is animated by more emotional parts, as well as the physical presence of the singers, who, although they have to perform precisely to the played music, were given a lot of freedom by the composer. The opera has been recorded in a modern studio. The 8-channel recoding system rendered the sound all-embracing. The music surrounds the audience from all directions - one can sit in its midst and enjoy the sound in its fullness. According to Polish reviewers The Magic Mountain is an “opera for the new century”.