Krzysztof Penderecki's opera Ubu Rex will be staged for the first time in the Silesian Opera in Bytom. The premiere performance will take place on April 3, 2016.

Penderecki’s idea of composing an opera based on Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi took a long time to mature, and so did the process of composition itself. The composer was attracted to that play as early as in 1959, when a "scandalous fantasy on themes from Ubu the King" was premiered in the Stodoła student club in Warsaw. Five years later, Penderecki composed a musical illustration for a production of Ubu Roi in the Stockholm Marionette Theatre directed by Michael Meschke, with sets and puppets created by Franciszka Themerson.

The storyline is rather simple. The ambitious, ruthless Mama Ubu persuades her husband to kill King Wenceslas. Wenceslas is dead, Ubu "debrains" the representatives of Polish elites and proceeds to collect taxes in person. In the meantime, Captain Bordure (organizer of the plot, now useless and in prison) escapes to Moscow, where he asks the Tsar to help him take revenge. The Russians invade Poland, and Papa and Mama Ubu, exiled from the country, sail away, hoping for a new "Ubuland" (source: www.ninateka.pl).

Direction and set design by Waldemar Zawodziński; music direction by Jurek Dybał; choreography by Janina Niesobska; costumes by Maria Balcerek.

Next performances will be held on April 10 at the Silesian Opera in Bytom and April 18 at the Silesian Theatre in Katowice.

Tickets available on-line at: www.opera-slaska.pl