Rigoletto

Over the last years I have shown you many opera houses in Europe. But actually we never visited one inside. To make up for it I will take you today to the famous "Rigoletto" by Guiseppe Verdi, as shown in the National Opera in Warsaw.

You might remember the building itself since we have seen it two years ago. During the night, the former Town Hall building is nicely illuminated.

On the top of the National Opera House you will rediscover the quadriga above the main entrance.

First, we need to buy the tickets.

Then, we move to the cloak room.

The red carpet will lead us to the balcony.

The spectacle starts at 7 PM so it is just about time that we take our places.

The room is vast, with many levels of balconies and galleries.

The curtain is still closed.

Just below the scene you can see the orchestra.

The best-known air from "Rigoletto" is "La donna è mobile". The most famous performance is probably this by Luciano Pavarotti.

But do not be fooled by the light tone of this air. "Rigoletto" is a sad story. The main character, Rigoletto, is a court jester, whose job is to amuse the Duke of Mantua.

http://www.teatrwielki.pl/repertuar/opera/kalendarium/rigoletto-1.html

The Duke likes to have fun and his favourite hobby is seducing women, both married and innocent, leaving the fathers and the husbands helpless faced to his ducal power. 

http://www.teatrwielki.pl/repertuar/opera/kalendarium/rigoletto-1.html

When he seduces the daughter of Rigoletto the latter hires an assassin. Unfortunately, Rigoletto's daughter Gilda fells in love with the Duke and sacrifices her life to save her beloved, despite the fact that she knows he was unfaithful to her. 

http://www.teatrwielki.pl/repertuar/opera/kalendarium/rigoletto-1.html

Since the action of "Rigoletto" is taking place in various locations, there is a need to change the scenography a number of times. During the breaks it is possible to visit the buffet. In a fancy place the food is fancy as well.

I particularly liked the cake.

One of the greatest things about operas are the amazing costumes. We are lucky because we will be able to visit an exhibition of the greatest designs of costumes starring in the spectacles of the National Opera in Warsaw. They fully deserve the name of haute couture.

The first dress that I will show you comes of course from Rigoletto, this is the dress of one of the noble women seduced by the Duke of Mantua.

The respective scene is shown on a screen next to the dress.

This amazing dress is from la Traviata, it is a design by Gosia Baczyńska.

The costumes for Madame Butterfly designed by Magdalena Tesławska and Paweł Grabarczyk.

And here Onegin as seen by Joanna Klimas.

I hope that you have enjoyed this date with high culture. I must say that I liked it a lot! And I just cannot get "La donna è mobile" out of my head ...

Win a postcard from Rick!

Our last story from the Centennial Hall was the story #200! Who would have thought! And yes, it's been 3.5 years and 200 weeks since I created this blog. To celebrate it, I have prepared a little contest in which you can win a postcard from our last trip.

To win the posctard you need to:

1. Leave a comment under this post.

or

2. Click "like" and / or leave a comment on our Facebook Fanpage.

Congratulations and recommendations of new trips will be appreciated. I will let you know who is the lucky winner next week. In the menatime, I will be working on new stories and new adventures. Thank you for reading my blog - travelling is always better when one can share it with friends :).

Centennial Hall

For our last trip in Wrocław I have left a very special place. A place so special that it is one of fourteen UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Poland. Ladies and Gentlemen - let me take you to the Centennial Hall.

The Centennial Hall was built in years 1911-1913. It commemorates the 100th anniversary of the victory of Leipzig. The Hall is surrounded by a Pergola.

Inside the Pergola there is a large and comfortable lane.

In the back of the Hall there is a "dancing fountain". Unfortunately it was closed for maintenance at the time when I was visiting it.

The tall structure that you see in the back is a "Needle", being a metal construction of 96 meters. It was built in 1948 and at that time it was 10 meters higher. The Needle was put in place for the first big exhibition that took place in Wrocław after the war.

The Hall did not suffer much during World War II. The only "victim" was a wooden roof that used to cover these pillars.

Let's move closer to better see the Hall. You may say that it does not look so impressive and that it is surprising that UNESCO considers it to carry some universal values. Well, you need to realise my friends that it was one of the first buildings of this kind in the world, built with use of reinforced concrete.

Inside the Hall there is an interactive exhibition presenting the construction of the Hall.

You can see its place in the history of architecture. The Centennial Hall was built in a style called expressionist architecture, being a sub-branch of modernism.

What I liked a lot is this comparison between the Centennial Hall and the dome of the Roman Panteon. Please remember that at the beginning of the second century, the Ancient Romans did not have reinforced concrete available.

Finally we may move inside the dome.

Nowadays, the Centennial Hall is a multi-purpose hall, used for concerts, matches, political conventions and masses. For next weekend they plan some music-hall, this is why it is filled up with chairs.

You might have noticed already that this huge dome (it has 65 meters of diameter!) is not supported by any columns. I have been told that when the wooden scaffolding was being removed the main architect, Max Berg, was standing in the middle of the floor, ready to literally bear the consequences of any mistake in calculations. Well, these were the good old days when people knew what "honour" and "responsibility for own acts" mean.

I propose we go up, to the gallery. On the staircase you can see the concrete from which the Hall is made.

I managed to sneak inside one of many conference rooms in the Centennial Hall. That allowed me to understand where are some of those windows that I saw from the outside - they make up the walls and the ceilings of some smaller rooms.

The view from the gallery is definitely worth climbing some stairs (Max Berg did not include elevators in his design). The Centennial Hall is really impressive, both when you look down ...

... and up.

I hope that you have enjoyed this trip in the Centennial Hall. To be honest, flat pictures cannot show it in its real dimension. Therefore I recommend you to take a look at these panoramic pictures.

That was our last point of interest in Wrocław. We leave now Silesia and move on to some new adventures!

Panorama Racławicka

As you know, I am really fond of art. Therefore when I came to Wrocław I planned to visit the exhibitions of the National Museum.

But a little friend has advised me that instead of visiting the main building I take a look at a special exhibition.

This special exhibition is in a special building that is round-shaped.

The reason for this special shape is that it houses a special piece of art - the Panorama of the Battle of Racławice.

A separate building for just one painting you may ask. Well, it is not any painting. It is a huge, 15 meters high and 114 meters long. And all this made at the end of the nineteenth century!

Let's move on to the main gate, the place is very popular amoung tourists and school excursions and we still need to buy tickets.

The Panorama shows a battle that took place in April 1794, during the Kościuszko Uprising, where the existence of Poland was in danger. Its neighbours, Russia, Austria and Prussia have divided most of the territory of Poland between them and were trying to annihilate it completely. Tadeusz Kościuszko was a prominent general, a hero of the American Revolutionary War.

Inside the museum there are some smaller exhibitions directly related to the Panorama, with some small sketches made during the preparatory work. It took 9 months and 9 artists to paint the final picture.

Additionally, there is also an interactive 3D presentation of the battle, showing the movements of the troops. It is round-shaped of course.

Last but not least, before we enter the main part of the building we may look closely at miniatures of soldiers that time. One amazing think about the Battle of Racławice and the Kościuszko Uprising in general was that the professional Polish cavalry ...

... was fighting arm in arm with the peasants. This democracy was very unusual at that time. You will notice that the peasants do not have sabers or firearms but scythes in the upright position.

The soldiers in green are professional Russian Jägers.

 Time to finally see the main attraction of the place. The Panorama is a cycloramic picture, which means that the viewers are in the middle and the picture is all around them. This gives and impression of really taking part in the battle itself. Here comes Kościuszko on his faithful horse, wearing a long white coat. behind him you see the scythe-bearers.

 You can see how determined they are.

 The cavalry is not lazy either. One amazing thing about this particular panorama is that the picture is "extended" by some additional elements. Like this cannon - it is not painted, it is a real one, just like the sand and some of the tree trunks.

 Here you can see the green Russian soldiers fleeing in panic. The battle of Racławice was a huge success of the Polish forces.

Unfortunately, one won battle did not translate into a won war. Kościuszko and his forces were defeated a few months later and Poland lost its independence for over a century. The memories of the battle of Racławice were a national jewel for a nation without a country. The Panorama was created in 1894 and was originally exhibited in Lwów, which at that time belonged to Austria.

After World War I, Poland regained its independence and Lwów was a Polish city again. It did not last long, since after World War II the borders of Poland were changed again. Lwów became part of Ukraine while Wrocław (which used to be a German city known as Breslau), became Polish. The Panorama of the Battle of Racławice was moved from Lwów to Wrocław (together with many inhabitants of the city) but was not exhibited for many years since the communist party would not allow to celebrate a victory over Russians. The picture was made availabe to the public only in 1985.


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