Wojtek Blecharz's "Rechnitz. Opera" – for the first time online!

A special presentation of Wojtek Blecharz' Rechnitz. Opera directed by Katarzyna Kalwat and based on a drama by Elfriede Jelinek, a Nobel prize winning Austrian writer, will take place on 9 May 2020 at 8:00 p.m. on TR Warszawa Facebook and Vimeo pages. A meeting with the creators will take place after the performance, around 10:30 p.m.

The presentation of the Rechnitz. Opera – The Exterminating Angel, which premiere took place on 25 September 2018 at the 61st "Warsaw Autumn" International Festival of Contemporary Music, is a part of the action "Stay at home, do not leave the theater!".

The scenario of the opera presents the tragic events which took place in March 1945 in the castle of Baroness Margrit Batthyány in Austria, Rechnitz. According to the testimonies of witnesses, during the reception, issued by the Baroness Margit von Batthyány, her guests - local SS and Gestapo officers - took part in the massacre of two hundred Jewish forced laborers brought there from Hungary. The mass grave of the slaughtered labourers has never been found and the sluggish progress in the investigation made it possible for the executioners to escape. In Jelinek's play, the events at the castle in Rechnitz are described by Messengers whose relations contradict each other. The play, will not be a reconstruction of the events from 70 years ago from Rechnitz. RECHNITZ. OPERA - The Exterminating Angel is an attempt at understanding the mechanisms of collective memory. Its main theme is the language as an instrument of manipulation, lies and violence. It’s also an account of the contemporary European history, European identity, a part of which is the experience of war and Holocaust.

English and Polish closed captions available only on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user52046418