Why do I go to the opera?

"Because for me it is always a celebration, during which you can meet the spirit of the operatic past, its present and you get a chance to run into its future" - writes Ilona Słojewska in the pages of Dziennik Teatralny Kujawy on the occasion of World Opera Day 2024. 

Because every opera performance is a uniquely constructed work, in which the voice and music give so many emotions that whenever you pass by its building, you feel the vibrations, for which you could visit it every day. And if, in addition, the building of the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz is located in an almost magical place, then the power of this place is infinitely strengthened. 

Because voices and instruments create a unique mystery. Because the soloists and orchestra bring to life the world to which they invite. Because the stage design and costumes, together with the light, make you receptive to colors, shapes and chiaroscuro. 

Because it is a place where the human voice and the sounds of instruments create a unique, unrepeatable symphony every evening, which will never be heard in the same structure again. Because everything that happens on the opera stage and in the orchestra pit is intended for you, for your emotions, impressions, to break away from everyday life. Because it has the power to transport you to its world. Why do I go? 

Because the opera gives you shivers when the set designers build their unique architecture on the stage, and the costume designers dress the characters in such a way as to reveal their characters. Because it is known that when you go with children to an opera written especially for them, you can be sure that everything that happens on the stage casts a spell not only on them, but also on the adults. Because there are artists who can hypnotize the entire audience. Because you go to hear voices that have a metaphysical quality, a masterful sound; because you can listen to the music flowing from the orchestra, whose melodies fill the entire space. Why do I go to see opera? 

Because there is no performance where several generations for whom music and singing are so important would not meet. I go to listen to how many young people hum their favorite aria during the break. Because I meet both students of the Academy of Music and its academic staff. Because you can hear the person sitting next to you, concerned about the static of Act I of Mieczysław Weinberg's "Portrait", when it seems to them that the young painter Czartkow will sing alone until the end of the performance, someone else calms them down: - Wait, maybe it will get going soon. Because only in the opera there is one and only moment when you hold your breath at the moment when silence falls, and the conductor raises his baton. And then you know that this is the second in which you can sail far ahead in the sea of ​​imagination together with the music. 

Because when you go to the opera with children and their dolphin, which they never part with, and it inadvertently falls into the orchestra pit during the break, you can always count on the musician throwing it straight into your hands. Because you can also see how much a chatty harpsichord differs from a dignified piano. 

Because when the Bydgoszcz Opera Festival is on, you can see and experience the most interesting productions from all over the world. Why do I go? Because it's worth being together with all those people, who love opera and feel this unique community, and after the performance is over, we all jump up from our chairs and applaud together! 

Because it's a celebration every time, during which you can meet the spirit of the operatic past with its present, and get a chance to run into its future. Because this is the theory of the existence of operatic voices and the music created for them. And that's why I go to the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz... 

Ilona Słojewska, Dziennik Teatralny Kujawy 
October 25, 2024