The Saint and the Criminal. Musical theatre - NOSPR

Ticket sales will begin on 5 September at the NOSPR box offices and online.

The initial intention of the composer, Piotr Tabakiernik, was to write an opera about four saints: Saint Teresa of Ávila, Polish Mother Teresa of St. Joseph, the patroness of the Zagłębie region, Edith Stein, also known as Saint Teresa of the Cross, and the so-called "Little Thérèse" of Lisieux - the Child Jesus.   

Eventually, the idea crystallized into a concept of creating an opera dedicated to just one of them - as the composer himself emphasizes, on the exact 150th anniversary of her birth. It was in 1873 that the French Discalced Carmelite, Teresa Martin, later a saint in the Catholic Church, was born. The composer relinquished the other saints in favor of a figure as unique as it is controversial - Jacques Fesch.

This young Frenchman led a wild life in the mid-20th century. During one of his youthful escapades, he robs a banker and kills a policeman while escaping, leading to his arrest. Over three and a half years spent in a prison cell became a time of deep conversion for him. He wrote a spiritual diary, "In Five Hours I Will See Jesus." The prolonged investigation and trial ended with a death sentence. The execution was carried out on October 1st - precisely on the day commemorating Saint Thérèse of Lisieux in the Catholic Church.

Their writings - those of Jacques Fesch and Teresa Martin - became the framework for Piotr Tabakiernik's music theater „Mała” The composer wrote the libretto himself after reading an enormous amount of texts, aiming to show the connections between these two figures. Though they are divided by almost everything - time and life choices - they are bound by something supernatural. Fesch himself pointed to the presence of Saint Teresa on his path to conversion.

The script is a tale woven around Teresa's seclusion behind nunnery walls and Jacques behind prison walls. The roles will be played by actors Bartosz Mazur and Małgorzata Mikołajczak, with their characters comprised of dozens of original statements and reimagined texts. The actors are accompanied, in a way, by a soprano and a trombone, acting as musical shadows. An instrumental ensemble and a choir, whose parts richly reference the psalter, will also accompany the performance.  

Tabakiernik began composing the music with a series of read-throughs with the actors, aiming to create it organically based on the textual layer and theatrical action. The music is very economical in terms of means. "In the context of musical material, I am increasingly inclined to look at the micro-scale. I am interested in detail, specifics," says the composer about his music. Hence, the music is highly repetitive, minimalist, refined by the choice of timbres, the use of microtones, and extended performance techniques. 

Alexandra Kozowicz

Duration: ca 60’

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