I am ready to die – said my mother. I sat down and thought, will I know it too when I am her age? Will those four decades that divide us be enough to learn how to let life go? Will I have anything to tell myself, once my pace is too slow for anybody else to join me? Lisa See writes in one of her books: ‘I am what they call in our village “one who has not yet died” – a widow, eighty years old.’ I don’t want to be like her, I want to be like my mother: I want to be ready, so I start today.
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Polish soprano Magdalena Molendowska graduated with honors from S. Moniuszko Music Academy in Gdańsk and Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she was awarded the prestigious Gold Medal in her final year. In 2008 she was a member of the Opera Studio Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Her wide repertoire includes songs, oratorios and cantatas. In London Barbican Hall she presented songs by K. Szymanowski and A. Dvořak. Invited by Malcolm Martineau she recorded “Huit chansons polonaises” by F. Poulenc on the Poulenc vol.4 album. Since 2011 she has been a soloist of the Polish National Opera in Warsaw, where she made her debut in “Jakob Lenz” by W. Rihm. In the 2012/13 season she returned to the Polish National Opera to perform the title role in “Halka” by S. Moniuszko. She currently cooperates with Wrołcaw Opera, Krakow Opera, Opera i Filharmonia Podlaska, Glyndebourne Festival, Opera North and Baden-Baden Festspiele.
Hanna Marasz is a graduate of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw and the Jagiellonian University, as well as the Postgraduate Studies in Voice Emission at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. In the years 1998 – 2001 she performed as a singer in P. Z. L. P. I T. “Mazowsze”. Since 2008, she has been working as an assistant director at the Wrocław Opera. She collaborates with the Polish National Opera, resuming performances of, among others Mariusz Treliński and David Pountney on the stages in Warsaw, at the Theater Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff. She directed “Candide” by L. Bernstein (Wrocław Opera) and world premieres of the operas “Ugly Duckling” by M. Ziółkowski (NFM, Wrocław) and “Yemay – Królowa Mórz” by Z. Krauze (Wrocław Opera, TVP Kultura retransmission).
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Inspired by the opera director: Hanna Marasz
Cast: Magdalena Molendowska, Stanisława Molendowska
Piano: Grażyna Troć
Music: W. A. Mozart: aria “Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro” from “Le nozze di Figaro” Video: Highstory
Director of photography: Paweł Jurczak Sound: Artur Pidek
