visualized oratory
In 1993, the second joint work of the author duo Merta and Moš premiered on November 11, directed by Stanislav Moš. After the almost pan-European success of the musical fairy tale Midsummer Night's Dream, the authors decided to stage a story that critics described as "a performance that will give you pleasure, the pleasure of the agony of searching for answers" and "a modern oratorio - melodically and formally multifaceted, in which an impressive unite the variety of genres, from scenes to operatic compositions to an intentionally trivial couplet". In the 1990s, 201 reruns took place throughout the Czech Republic, including a several-month guest appearance at the National Theater in Prague.
The meditative work BASTARD, in its verse libretto, does not deny its inspiration from biblical stories, the Faustian theme and the figure of Everyman, popular not only in the Middle Ages. Basically, modern morality adheres to the classic structure of a dramatic text, in which one particular person, in this case the Last Adam / Bastard, must undergo a long journey, on which he hopes to find not only himself, but to defend a place in the sun for the entire human race. This "extensive vocal-instrumental work for solos, chorus and text" tries to find an answer to the questions: "Where do we come from and where are we going?" and "Who are we?" At the beginning of the whole story we meet the figures of the Holy Spirit and Satan, who decide vie for the Bastard's soul, which craves power, wealth, and immortality. They send him on a long journey and both assume that they will take power over their protégé. Satan eventually wins over man and allows him to fulfill all his evil and selfish desires. In a cathartic conclusion, however, this unlimited power leads the Bastard to his own destruction. But the death of one person does not mean the end of human civilization.
Thirty years after the premiere, we decided to present this thematically immortal and still relevant work on the stage of the Music Stage, this time directed by Petr Gazdík.
