Barwki i Słyszki. Opera binauralna.

Con­ver­sa­tions about colours and shapes with visu­al­ly impaired adults and chil­dren were the direct impulse for cre­at­ing the con­cept of this opera per­for­mance. The knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence of blind peo­ple embed­ded in it, togeth­er with the bin­au­r­al sys­tem, will enhance our audi­to­ry per­cep­tion and attentiveness.

Can you talk with a blind per­son about colours? You can, and it is well worth doing. From a per­son with visu­al impair­ment you can learn about colours far more than what a ful­ly sight­ed per­son knows. The expe­ri­ence of real­is­ing artis­tic projects togeth­er with visu­al­ly impaired peo­ple is above all about con­ver­sa­tions. It was pre­cise­ly those con­ver­sa­tions about colours and shapes with visu­al­ly impaired adults and chil­dren that pro­vid­ed the direct impulse for cre­at­ing the con­cept of this opera per­for­mance. The knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence of blind peo­ple embed­ded in it, togeth­er with the bin­au­r­al sys­tem, will enhance our audi­to­ry per­cep­tion and atten­tive­ness. At the same time, I hope it will also sen­si­tise us to the world and the needs of blind and par­tial­ly sight­ed peo­ple. A par­tic­u­lar­ly inspir­ing role in this process is played by Marek Reiss — a guide at the Invis­i­ble Exhi­bi­tion, a won­der­ful sto­ry­teller, and also an actor (which he would prob­a­bly nev­er have become had he not lost his sight). It is his sto­ry — a tale from his own expe­ri­ence of grad­u­al­ly los­ing his vision, a sto­ry of colours dis­ap­pear­ing from his field of view (lit­er­al­ly) one by one — that became the direct impulse for cre­at­ing this form, which is large­ly son­ic and musi­cal. And although it is a per­for­mance about colours, it is musi­cal for good rea­son. Tim­bre, after all, is a con­cept that func­tions both in the realm of vision and of hearing.

The simul­ta­ne­ous exis­tence of opti­cal colour and sound tim­bre, and the aware­ness that los­ing one’s sight caus­es oth­er sens­es (often hear­ing) to take over cer­tain per­cep­tu­al func­tions, were the inspi­ra­tion for com­bin­ing the worlds of hear­ing and see­ing through music, visu­al art and the­atre — and for cre­at­ing the con­cept of an opera per­for­mance that uses the play of sounds and words to tell the sto­ry of the play of colours, shapes and light. This is a spe­cif­ic kind of audio descrip­tion, using not only words and names of colours and shapes, or the rela­tion­ships between them. It is intend­ed as a per­for­mance friend­ly to blind and par­tial­ly sight­ed peo­ple, while at the same time expand­ing the knowl­edge of ful­ly sight­ed audi­ences. And in doing so — speak­ing a lan­guage close to children.

Bar­w­ki i Słysz­ki is a sim­ple sto­ry about colours and abstract shapes that one day begin to dis­ap­pear. The sit­u­a­tion is unfor­tu­nate, but ulti­mate­ly uni­ver­sal. And as in life: sad­ness and grav­i­ty often min­gle with humour, irony, joy and play. As usu­al in such sit­u­a­tions, what helps is: per­spec­tive, a sense of humour, art, and the con­nec­tions we forge. From any sit­u­a­tion, how­ev­er dif­fi­cult, a way out can be found. Here, the world of sounds and music begins to play a mean­ing­ful role. Impro­vi­sa­tion and con­tem­po­rary small vocal forms — songs, pieces and impro­vi­sa­tions — play a spe­cial func­tion in the musi­cal and son­ic lay­er of the opera. The instru­men­tal inter­ludes and dia­logues are also impro­vised: although they orig­i­nal­ly took on a fixed shape, they are freely and flex­i­bly deliv­ered and sung by the actors and soloists. And one of the lead char­ac­ters becomes a graph­ic score.

Part of the oper­a’s sound mate­r­i­al will be per­formed live, and part played back from a record­ing. These planes mix and over­lap, so the lis­ten­er and recip­i­ent of the event should expect a per­for­mance with ele­ments of a radio play. Hence the sub­ti­tle “bin­au­r­al opera”. The bin­au­r­al sys­tem (from Latin bi — dou­ble, auris — ear) is a tech­nol­o­gy fre­quent­ly used when work­ing with blind and par­tial­ly sight­ed peo­ple as an edu­ca­tion­al aid. This tech­nol­o­gy allows the lis­ten­er to pre­cise­ly locate record­ed acoustic sig­nals in space, there­by cre­at­ing the son­ic illu­sion of being present in the place where the record­ing was made. Bin­au­r­al tech­nol­o­gy enables very atten­tive and sen­si­tive man­age­ment of sound. Thanks to these pos­si­bil­i­ties, every sound can be heard very clear­ly and selec­tive­ly, while at the same time offer­ing the chance for com­plete focus and expe­ri­ence of the music and son­ic event in a sense of fullness.

Dates:

21 Sep­tem­ber (Sat­ur­day) 11:00, 13:00

22 Sep­tem­ber (Sun­day) 11:00, 12:30, 14:00

23 Sep­tem­ber (Mon­day) 9:30

24 Sep­tem­ber (Tues­day) 9:30, 11:00, 13:00

Text: Anna Kierkosz

Per­form­ers:

Mar­ta Grzywacz voice

Michał Sławec­ki voice

Mile­na Kranik, Sean Palmer, Marek Reiss, Anna Sza­w­iel actors

Hash­tag Ensemble:

Mar­ta Piórkows­ka violin

Krzysztof Kozłows­ki piano

Oli­wier Andruszczenko clarinets

Mag­dale­na Kordy­lasińs­ka-Pękala percussion

Pro­duc­tion:

Bartek Wąsik musi­cal direction

Agniesz­ka Wid­larz com­po­si­tion of arias, songs and vocal forms

Julia Szmyt direction

Ewa Gdowiok set design

Kresh­nik Hax­hidau­ti, Ewa Gdowiok, Julia Szmyt multimedia

Aga­ta Bilas Marek Reiss libretto

Dami­an Pawella light­ing design

Maciej Mulawa record­ing and sound engineering

Anna Kierkosz artis­tic con­cept based on Marek Reis­s’s sto­ry, texts of arias and vocal forms

and

Aga­ta Zakrzews­ka voice and vocal consultation

Andrzej Życzyńs­ki, Zuzan­na Gar­doc­ka, Julian­na Chrzanows­ka acces­si­bil­i­ty consultation

Justy­na Józe­fow­icz psy­cho­log­i­cal consultation

Kos­ma Standera sound projection

Part­ners of the pre­miere and post-pre­miere per­for­mances of the bin­au­r­al opera:

Przestrzeń Muzy­ki Współczes­nej Hash­tag Lab, Teatr Lalek Guliwer.

Organ­is­er of the accom­pa­ny­ing post-pre­miere per­for­mances: Fun­dac­ja Muzy­ka jest dla wszystkich

Post-pre­miere per­for­mances for organ­ised groups were co-financed by the State Fund for Reha­bil­i­ta­tion of Peo­ple with Dis­abil­i­ties PFRON with­in the Nation­al Pro­gramme “Cul­ture Sen­si­tive” and from the funds of the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Nation­al Her­itage from the Cul­ture Pro­mo­tion Fund — a state ear­marked fund — with­in the “Acces­si­ble Cul­ture” programme.

Przestrzeń Muzy­ki Współczes­nej Hash­tag Lab is co-financed by the Cap­i­tal City of Warsaw.

Tickets

50 PLN