King Stach's Wild Hunt: Poems for the Opera

Poems to the opera by Olga Podgaiskaya
Based on the story by Vladimir Karatkevich

The opera premiered on September 15, 2023 in London, at the Barbican Arts Center.

Composer Olga Podgaiskaya
Directors Natalia Kolyada and Nikolai Khalezin
Conductor Vitaly Alekseyonok
Libretto by Nikolai Khalezin
Poems by Andrei Khadanovich

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I am old, I am very old,
ninety-six years old.
I've been hunting for a long time.
to forgotten songs and words.
I am a seeker of hoary legends,
that measures its land with its travels.
They tease them: "Intellectual!"
inviting to the gendarmerie.
They drown the land in blood and trembling,
but the quiet hope has not died,
because Belarus is still alive,
Where language breathes song.
… I was so shocked
on a folklore expedition.
Underfoot is the mouth of a dragon,
and from heaven — a flood with a storm.
Tell me, how in a fierce rage
I almost died, you stupid young man!
I invite you to a country where
Hunting wild horses.