Singing the praises of Polish opera

What are the long-suffering opera lovers of Taiwan to expect of State Opera Poland? There are two wildly divergent lines of thought, each suggesting a different possible answer.

The first runs as follows. The last few years have seen a veritable pilgrimage of woefully inadequate operatic operations from eastern and southeastern Europe trooping across the stage of the Taiwan National Theater, each one more horrific and pitiful than the last. Taiwan is a highly milkable cash cow for these emergent economies, it seems, but their artistic standards proved far from modern. Are the Poles really likely to be any better?

The second line of thought gives cause for greater optimism. Poland is a country of enormous interest, and with a highly individual artistic tradition. It's a much bigger place than the former principalities and dukedoms, free ports and ethnic enclaves we've seen here of late. Again, the economic motives may be similar, but the talents involved may differ strikingly from those of their predecessors. The Poles might just come up with something special.

The auguries, then, in common with all the best auguries everywhere, are nothing if not ambiguous. Let's look at the facts and see if they can throw any further light on the matter.

State Opera Poland isn't based in Warsaw but in Wroclaw (pronounced "vrotsvov"). This city, under the name Breslau, was German for 400 years prior to 1945 and had strong musical traditions. Today, operatic activity appears vigorous. In addition to their usual program, the city offers every October what they call a "superproduction," with enormous casts, lavish sets, and space for mass audiences.

Each of the three operas we are to see in Taipei has recently been one of these superproductions -- Aida in 1997, Nabucco in 1999, and Il Trovatore in 2000.

Of course, the horrendous expense of touring opera means that numbers have almost certainly had to be cut. There will be only 45 musicians in the orchestra, for instance. Nevertheless, the Poles' chorus numbers 35, and this is a big improvement on the dozen at most seen in the Rigoletto from a benighted US company in the same venue last year.

Another fact may sustain an optimistic analysis. State Opera Poland's advance program announces that their superproductions for 2003 and the following three years will be the four operas of Wagner's Ring cycle.

For anyone to attempt this operatic Himalaya is astonishingly ambitious, and a company that can even contemplate such a venture must be confident of itself, not to speak of its artistic and physical resources. It is inconceivable that the companies from Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia we've seen here could even dream of such an undertaking.

The Poles' mini-season in Taipei kicks off tomorrow night with Nabucco (1842). This is Italian for Nebuchadnezzar, and it was Verdi's first major success. People more or less went mad when they first heard its explosively energetic music. The story is taken from the Old Testament, and Va Pensiero, a chorus of Hebrew slaves, became so popular it served as a National anthem for the then emerging Italian state. The enormous, weeping crowds that thronged to Verdi's funeral were still singing it 60 years later. The opera opens in Jerusalem, filled with strife then as now, and its story has love and politics clashing head on. It's a work characterized by marches, hymns and grandiose tableaux. Nabucco, King of Babylon, first enters on horseback (it's unlikely we'll see this here). The incredibly forceful choruses, driven by a wild frenzy and accompanied by searing brass fanfares, produced scenes of astonished exhilaration and awe on first hearing.