KAMILA SIWINSKA Opera Director & Visual Artist

ON NON-LOVE

"Of all the protagonists, it is Titania who ventures deepest into the dark realm of sex, where there is no beauty and ugliness, just intoxication and liberation."
Jan Kott "Tytania i głowa Osła"

Drawing on William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry Purcell's The Fairy Queen is a story about a feature of the human mind that enables it to descend into a state of extreme emotional subjugation. Some confuse it for love. Yet, in truth, it is closer to animal desire or bacchanal madness than genuine affection. It involves a sense of unfulfilledness and a forever insatiable, almost narcotic, hunger. How much does the state endanger the institution of marriage? How much does it undermine it...? Fortunately, the intoxication can pass as quickly as it appeared, almost as if it were dispelled by little fairies with supernatural powers...
The story is multilayered. We observe the same mechanism of energetic invasion and its consequences in multiplication. It affects Titania, the titular Fairy Queen, and two other pairs of lovers: Lysander and Hermia and Demetrius and Helena. The whole whirlwind of events is set in motion by Titania's husband, Oberon, who possesses in-depth knowledge about the properties of the human mind and uses it to his own advantage. He deliberately and emotionlessly manipulates his wife. He takes away her freedom and independence with cold-blooded determination and successfully gains control over her. The tool with which Oberon executes his scheme and at the same time the object of Titania's peculiar passion is Bottom-turned-ass. In antiquity, donkeys were thought to have the strongest sex drive and the largest member of all animals. His overpowering attraction, however, is not the result of Donkey's lustfulness, intellect, or anatomical features. He owes his power and allure to mysterious energy that penetrates his victim like toxic smoke and overwhelms her. The takeover happens quickly and painlessly. Pain comes equally rapidly and forcefully when Donkey switches his interest to a different object. The transition brings about recognition and reflection: How was it possible? Was it a dream? Was it me...? The finale features an official marriage ceremony of the young runaway lovers. Everybody is present at the nuptials, trying to give the appearance of normality despite the events of the previous night. They pretend that nothing has changed, that everything is fine. The show of hypocrisy and posturing is interrupted by Donkey, who storms the stage. This time, he takes the form of Hymen, the god of successful marriage...

Kamila Siwinska