1. DEVILS OF LOUDUN - MASKS IN STALLS, 1969
SCENOGRAPHY PROJECT
Signed in marker on glued sheet on back: "DEVILS FROM LOUDUN" | K. PENDERECKI | HAMBURG 1969 | STAATSOPER | DIRECTOR KONRAD SWINARSKI | SCENORAFIA LIDIA and JERZY | SKARZYNSKI | MASKI
In STALLS, above on the background of the lead: The Devils of Loudun | Masks in Stalls
2. DEVILS OF LOUDUN - MASKS IN STALLS, 1969
SET DESIGN
signatures in marker on two glued sheets:
g. - scen L. and J. Skarżyński | "DEVILS FROM LOUDUN" | K. PENDERECKI | dir. KONRAD SWINARSKI | HAMBURGISCH STAATSOPER | 1969,
d. - "DEVILS FROM LOUDUN" | PENDERECKI | HAMBURG 1969 | STAATSOPER | dir . KONRAD SWINARSKI | scen. L. and J. Skarżyński | MASKS IN STALLS
The works on display are set designs by Lidia and Jerzy Skarzynski for the performance of Krzysztof Penderecki's opera The Devils of Loudun at the Staatsoper in Hamburg on June 20, 1969 (world premiere), directed by Konrad Swinarski.
The libretto of The Devils of Loudun, devised by the composer himself, was based on a chronicle short story by Aldous Huxley, later put into the form of a stage drama by John Whiting. It tells of an authentic event - a famous and grisly trial in a small French town near Poitiers. However, it is not difficult to find here themes and problems current in times much closer to us. Intolerance, cruelty, humiliation of man and crime in the name of heartless fanaticism, the struggle to preserve human dignity in the face of organized hatred - don't we know this from the tragic experiences of our century as well? It's no wonder that such a theme particularly fascinated the Polish composer. He was certainly also attracted by the interesting character and tragic fate of Urban Grandier, who is transformed from a clergyman with rather libertine convictions, who appreciates elegance, refinement and all the charms of life, into a martyr, to eventually grow into a hero. Alongside Grandier, however, there is a whole gallery of distinctive and diverse characters in "The Devils of Loudun," with the nuns afflicted with collective madness, with the hysterical, full of repressed passions Prioress Joanna and the sadistic exorcist Father Barre at the forefront.
Jozef Kanski, Opera Guide, PWM 1997
Lidia Minticz-Skarżyńska (14 I 1920 Zabierzów near Kraków - 20 VII 1994 Kraków), began her studies in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in 1938, graduating in 1948. At the same time she studied architecture at the Cracow University of Technology and the Film Institute in Kraków.
Jerzy Skarżyński (December 16, 1924 Krakow - January 7, 2004 Krakow), began his studies during the occupation at Krakow's Kunstgewerbeschule, which was a continuation of the Academy, closed by the Nazis. During this time he collaborated with Tadeusz Kantor's underground theater. After the war, he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and at the Faculty of Architecture of the Cracow University of Technology, and also attended the classes of Antoni Bohdziewicz's Youth Film Workshop. He was a co-founder of the Young Artists Group (1942-1947), the Artists' Club (1948-1949) and the Cracow Group (1957). Between 1947 and 1948, he ran a jazz club in Krakow. In addition, he designed posters and book illustrations.
Lidia and Jerzy Skarżyński worked together from the early 1950s, initially at the "Groteska" Puppet and Mask Theater in Krakow, where Kazimierz Mikulski was also the set designer at the time. The theater's formula allowed it not to submit to the rules of socialist realism, so Skarżynski's works were imbued with moods of the grotesque, absurd, surrealism. In 1958, they began working with the Old Theater in Cracow, with which they were associated for many years, as well as with the Słowacki Theater in Cracow, the Rozmaitości Theater in Wrocław, the Wybrzeże Theater in Gdańsk, the Ateneum and Dramatyczny Theaters in Warsaw and many others in Poland and abroad. They created set designs for productions by many outstanding directors, including Bohdan Korzeniewski, Lidia Zamkow, Jerzy Jarocki, Konrad Swinarski, Zygmunt Hübner. They also worked with Jerzy Grotowski at the Theatre of 13 Rows in Opole (1960-62). At the same time, they undertook work in film, co-writing primarily the paintings of Wojciech Jerzy Has, including "A Common Room" (1959), "The Saragossa Manuscript" (1964), "The Doll" (1968), "Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass" (1973). They were repeatedly awarded at competitions and film festivals.
