Seamless travel, comfortable and centrally located hotels, top-tier opera performances, gastronomic delights, enriching guided tours and enough leisure time for individual sightseeing and exploring. Our recent Opera Club trip to Poland was all this and more.
We all found Poland uplifting. Warsaw, full of vigour and excitement and Łódź, (Poland’s third city pronounced Woodge) once an industrial powerhouse is now, rapidly reinventing itself through urban renewal projects – upcoming with many possibilities in the waiting.
Punctual flights, a quick exit through arrivals and an immediate meeting with the wonderful Wojtek who sped us in a large Mercedes V Class Limo to the luxurious Hotel Bristol in the centre of Warsaw. Later, he would chauffeur us to the equally comfortable Grand Hotel in Łódź. We were blessed to have this efficient, professional, friendly and courteous driver for all our transfers throughout the six days. He worked well with our two excellent city guides – Filip in Warsaw and Marcin in Łódź. These insightful and thoughtful guides brought us so much interest and understanding with their extensive knowledge of Poland and particularly Warsaw and Łódź. The cold didn’t dim our appreciation.
Shared culinary experiences accompanied by good conversation are always something to look forward to. We experienced international cuisine in elegant hotel surroundings, local delicacies in the charming Warsaw Restaurant ‘Delicja Polska’ (Pierogi – dumplings, Żurek – sour rye soup and Sernik – Polish cheesecake) and lunch in a family run Jewish restaurant in Łódź – full of atmosphere.
The Magic Flute in the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw was an ingenious animation production. Normally, the singing takes centre stage – those sparking arias, glorious ensembles and brilliant orchestral passages. They were still there but not necessarily the main attraction. The seamless non-stop interaction between on-stage performers and projected hand-drawn animation was quite breathtaking. Adding to the novelty, the delightful animation was built around both popular and obscure silent film plot references. Imagine an enormous flat TV screen, with several openings for the singers who are perched on various ledges which slide shut when they are finished. These singers are essentially anchored in place while images swirl about them in constant motion which is the opposite of what we normally experience. While the technology constrained the singers, the trade off, in terms of the production’s stunning visual impact, was an immensely enjoyable result.
The Flying Dutchman in the modernistic Grand Theatre in Łódź was a real contrast by comparison. It was traditional compared to the many contemporary productions. Stripped down to the essentials of the myth, it had a convincing ghost ship with an atmospheric everchanging sea projected onto the backdrop of the stage – simple but so effective. The Grand Theatre Orchestra was colourful and dramatic not least during the overture, bristling with repeated motifs over the backdrop of lashing waves. The power of the chorus at its fullest was thrilling especially at the riveting opening chorus of Act 3, calling the crew of the Dutchman’s ship. The Dutchman & Senta were performed magnificently by Krzysztof Szumanski and Monika Cichocka.
The magic of Poland!
