Corporeality as the Hologram of Mythological Content (Based on the Prose of the Ukrainian Diaspora of the 1920s–1950s)

. The role and the place of the artistic truth and artistic speculation are a promising area of theoretical and practical explorations. The focus of this study is on the mythical-poetic hologram of the human body as a specific information carrier which comprises a range of important markers.

in flower wreaths, corsets, and national costumes are not associated with the body in its mythological sense; such images convey no meaning. On the other hand, retransformation of physical features, generalization of their meaning create symbols, which can reveal the covert essence of national purpose.
Using the device of time compression, joining the past and the future in order to create the picture of today, Ivan Bahrianyi in his piece Rozhrom (Defeat) 'thickens' the chronology and presents a reader with a collective image of thousands of thousands of Ukrainians who go and go, across almost all the continents, each one has their own way of the cross; but their eyes search for one beacon -their native land, the land of their ancestors. 'They march immersed in thoughts about themselves and the world, proudly and contemptuously -along the endless prisoners' routes of Siberia, Kolyma, and Eurasia … From one single or mass prison cell in jails and dungeons to another (ten steps forwards, ten steps backwards, their lips bitten, their eyebrows snapped together) … Through underground tunnels and hard labour labyrinths … Across the dams, the viaducts, the pits of the many White Sea-Baltic Canals, Baikal-Amur Mainlines -the launched and not-yet-started projects … Up and down the staircases of torture houses stained with their own blood … Along strange roads of other people's war … In other people's trench coats, in foreign armies … In POW columns … At the international human dump … In the barb-wired corrals of concentration camps … They fall down and rise again, and stubbornly keep goingthey hold on … From all the points of the globe, from all abysses .., with their heads stubbornly bent down, they break through to one point .., they seek it with his hearts. And its name is Homeland' * [3, p. 9-10]. Thus recipients/readers are presented with a dynamic panorama of the events.
A reader understands that for Ivan Bahrianyi, the post-war Germany, where in constant risk for his life he wrote his books living from hand to mouth, that ruined, demoralized, crossed out from the family of civilized countries Germany was associated with nothing less than Dante Alighieri's hell described in his Divine Comedy. Bahrianyi's undefeated Ukrainians are amidst the flame -a visible sign of unflagging spirit, which makes them equal to Homer's Odysseus as described in Divine Comedy. At the same time, in Ivan Bahrianyi's Defeat we come across a tragic symbol -a street whore, who does not scruple to please an African-American soldier. '"New Europe" exchanged her virginity for a cigarette, for a cigarette stub … There she is -standing with a negro in the pool of pale street lamp light wriggling shamefully as a mutt, trying to catch his eye [3, p. 36]. This transformation of symbolically iron, armed cap-a-pie, bestmotorized Valkyrie-State into Obsequious-Whore-State emphasizes the collapse of Hitler's misanthropic idea, for which the German people (the nation of philosophers and poets, which at the level of subconsciousness should have identified the plans of the 'frenzied Fuhrer' as clearly infernal and should have been more cautious about them) paid millions of lives and, at the level of the myth, suffered the loss of national vital energy.
Close attention to the main bodily and gender parameters was paid in the texts of the Bible: it was prohibited to sacrifice crippled or sick animals; a disabled person or a person with abnormality, birthmarks could not become a priest, a prophet, a spiritual leader. On the other hand, during a person's trial or service to the Absolute, God might mark the chosen one; for example, Jacob developed a limp wrestling with a mysterious being; there is also 'a wide-spread belief that Moses, when he came down from Mount Sinai with the tables of the Law, had two horns on his forehead', though according to Jewish Encyclopedia (and many other sources), 'this strange idea … is based upon a wrong interpretation of Ex. xxxiv. 29, 35' [19].
In ancient mythology, there was quite a substantial number of various monster races -the Centaurs, the Sirens, the Nymphs, the Pans, the Amazons, and others; such unique sinister monsters as Medusa, one of the three Gorgon sisters, and Cerberus, the Dog of Hades, were regarded as creatures of the other world, and their function in this world was far from being honourable or merciful. Though, most of the ancient chimeras were intentionally distanced from the orderly world -they were believed to dwell in the lands where chaos began, where the sacredness and the orderliness of the territories explored by humans end. According to V. Sukovata, '… Those whose bodily appearance did not comply with the Greek notion of "the order of uniformity" were considered to be marginal beings and ousted from the Centre (Greece) to the suburbs of civilization. Symbolically, Medusa, Circe, the Sirens .., the Harpies … corresponded to the "mother right" civilization before the emergence of the "law of the Fathers"' [14, p. 402]. In other words, in the civilized world, there was no room for the Amazons or the Centaurs, who were a priori perceived as bodily monsters. Even the ancient philosopher Plato did not think that the role of the Amazons befited his female contemporaries, though he did not deny the latter the right to military service or public activity [13, p. 262]. It is also important that ancient philosophers referred to the city-state of warlike females, whose ferocity surpassed that of males', as a place so remote that it fell into the category of hic sunt leones * . Considering the data from ancient sources and analyzing the factors behind the phenomenon of the Amazons, we can discover many facts, important rather than interesting, which explain why C. Jung referred to the Amazons as 'troublemakers' and compared them to the wife of the biblical Lot -a female who adopts the lifestyle of males turns away from the life of joys and pleasures. Metaphorically speaking, they looks back, as Lot's wife looked back at Sodom; they cannot stop reliving in a sadomasochistic manner their experience of being abused, hurt, tortured by men. Their rancor and hate for the stronger sex explain their conscious, more probably subconscious desire to revenge themselves on men -even to castrate or kill them -and their desperate attempts to prove that females can be crueler and more cynical than males; this is their way to remove even the slightest doubt in what concerns a woman's inner potential. According to the ancient myth, the Amazons mated with their neighbours once a year and solely for reproduction, which implicates their frigidity; killing their own helpless new-born sons may implicate that motherhood was incompatible with their way of life, in addition to their hostile attitude to men.
A close analysis of the Amazons' behaviour pattern -their sadism towards themselves (cauterizing their right breasts in adolescent age) and their own children, using men's clothes as mummery attributes, disguising themselves as men -shows their true nature; according to Aristotle, such a woman is viewed as ' a maimed .., mutilated man' [9, p. 41]; moreover, C. Jung suggests that the dark side of subconsciousness (the Shadows), described in the myths about the Amazons, triumphs when we deal with mass psychosis -the Inquisition, the Bolshevik regime, Nazism, and suchlike phenomena; the Shadows fill the nights of a person with horrible dreams and break through into the real world determining the actions of those possessed by them; and the leader is always the least responsible person with the worst character traits, the one generally guided by primitive instincts of violence and cruelty [18, p. 57-58]. An Amazon is a gregarious being, her tribe is a single-sex society; it encourages a predatory attitude towards the world around her; the dominant manifestation of such philosophy is permanent bloodshed and ostentatious cruelty.
The 20 th century literature (especially the products of mythological mentality) often addresses the gender issues. The body of a character may be regarded as the ID of his/her soul, a kind of identification code of a character's spirit; that is why special attention is given to his/her descent, name, marital and family status, repressed or excessive sexuality, bloody magic rituals aimed at ensuring optimal space for gaining strength, self-assertion, or for realizing the plans of the evil forces, whose puppet a person consciously or unwittingly becomes. Under such circumstances, males and females act differently; and for a reader, their bodies may become an identification sign of their inner essence.
For instance in Sad Hetsymans'kyi (The Garden of Gethsemane), a novel by Ivan Bahrianyi, protagonist Andrii Chumak suddenly realizes that some of the omnipotent investigators suffer more than those they torture during interrogations.
'In the house on the opposite side of the jail's courtyard, where there lived the high-ranking NKVD ** officials, very thick boards were sticking out of one of the windows; they were tied together with a length of rope and moored to the upper frame; someone had constructed the bunk, and now he was trying to lie on it … Apparently, after a hellish night, after all the cries and moaning, after the crazy music of the 'production lines', after this 'work' of his, the investigator could not go to sleep in a normal way, as all people do, in a bed … He had * hic sunt leones -literally, here are lions; the phrase was used to mark strange lands on ancient maps.
wrapped a bed sheet around his waist and tied himself to the boards fearing he would fall down in his sleep; it looked as if he was asleep … He was jerking in his sleep, gesticulating with his arms, wriggling … That was how he slept. A man with sick psyche. Andrii thought back of the 'factory-kitchen' with all its madness, and he understood the poor devil' [4, p. 247]. At the same time, Melnyk, a jailer, surprises a reader; the man seems to be the only one who still has some human qualities -empathy, mercy to the prisoners; sometimes at a great risk to himself, he even passes cigarettes to the poor people. At the end of the novel, a reader learns that the 'kind' jailor (who looks like a monster, which means that he is, a priory, a flawed creature) is an executioner; bearing a friendly and sympathetic smile, he shoots the doomed and finishes off the wounded with a small iron bar; a reader sees a typical sadist, whose greatest pleasure is to watch the agony of his tormented, deceived, desperate, scared victims.
In the novel, the elements naturalism contribute to the theme of corporeality; in my opinion, the female chekists * dispay the behavioural traits ascribed to the Amazons; they derive vampiric pleasure from their 'work' in the Stalin jails depriving the incarcerated men of their manhood. Describing the death of Yahelskyi, a former member of the Party troika ** , Ivan Bahrianyi gives a vivid description of the castration. 'Hit him with boards, with boards! And Nechaieva -with a ramrod -on his b…! Kundibundi *** on the big production line' [4, p. 80]. To paraphrase Hermann Hesse, every person is more than just themselves; the message of the aphorism is that a person as a holistic being is a product of society he or she belongs to; unfavourable conditions like wars and revolutions provoke an upsurge in negative phenomena, Amazonism and prostitution in women in particular. The myth provides quite an accurate account of these phenomena. We should remember that 'profane spaces are always gaps in sacred spaces, which belong to the distant past' [16, p. 107]; in these infernal craters -passages for strong currents from the other world -a woman, who in the sacred space would remain herself, receives an evil incarnation. According to E. Fromm, choosing between 'to be' and 'to have', she gives preference to the surrogate postulate 'to have' substituting the false for the true, easily accessible things for the true values.
In his novel Tigrolovy (The Tiger Trappers), Ivan Bahrianyi describes the Khabarovsk whores -the daughters of Ukrainian kulaks deported to Siberia. The frost is hard, it is thirty degrees below zero (-22 degrees Fahrenheit), but the girls in a restaurant wear no stockings. Hryhorii Mnohohrishnyi and Hrytsko Sirko feel sorry for them; for the trappers, the exposed flesh is the sign of poverty; they think the girls have no money to buy stockings or cottonwool trousers. For a modern reader, the implication is obvious -this form of body language signals belonging to one of the oldest professions.
The Bolshevik epoch brought defilement and licentiousness to the land of Ukraine. In the works of T. Osmachka, the 'troublous' times (the war, the revolution, the Bolshevik power in the Ukrainian villages, the collectivization -desecration of the conquered land, stripping women of their dignity, pollution of the Ukrainian gene pool with the alien seed) are described in terms mythology as a threatening, an overtly scary, infernal phenomenon. The gang rape of a young teacher by the Red Army soldiers of Tula in T. Osmachka's novel Rotonda Dushohubtsiv (The Rotunda of Murderers) is presented not as an individual act of violence, but as a mythological picture -the Russian soldiers molest an educated girl, who is perceived as the personification of Ukraine. The author contrasts the victim -her national clothes, her high spirituality, her delicate charm, which is inconspicuous in comparison with the bright beauty of the other village girls -and the lusty soldiers who sing a rude, arrogant song. At the same time, we cannot ignore the fact that any war seriously affects sexual relations. In The Rotunda of Murderers, Hapusia Shelestiian, an underage girl and a potential victim, gets into an extremely difficult, tragic situation. She has to work as a hired hand for Madzyhon in exchange for her family using a pair his of horses. Scared into obedience by the blackmail of the party bastard, who threatens to arrest her father and keep him rotting in jail, the fourteen-year-old girl cannon resist the rapist; she only suggests a compromise dropping a clear hint about a love game -incomplete sexual intercourse, which * chekist -a member of Cheka (Russian -Chrezvychaynaya komissiya) -Emergency Committee, the Soviet state security organization. ** troika -in the Soviet Union history, the commission of three persons who issued sentences to people after simplified investigations and without a full trial. *** kundi-bundi -tortures (Russian convict lingo).
is indirectly referred to in folk song about pre-marital relations; in some villages it is known as the prytuly custom. It turns out, old Shelestiian has nothing against such relationship between the master and his servant; he considers it quite acceptable under the circumstances -for him, the horses are more important than his child's safety. Neither his parental intuition nor typical peasant cautiousness nor even the unenviable fate of Madzyhon's previous servant stops Shelestiian from making a risky deal. His daughter's tragedy does not cause any emotional outburst -just a submissive acceptance of the fact, a weak verbal condemnation, not even a thought of revenge -complete capitulation to a cruel twist of the fate.
The level of Madzyhon's morality (he is the headmaster of the local school and the head of the Kutsiv Party committee) is vividly shown in the scene with the dog. Bestiality is strictly prohibited by God's law. 'Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion' [7, p. 123] (Leviticus 18:23). According to the Bible, is a cardinal sin punishable by death. 'If there is a man who lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death; you shall also kill the animal' [7, p. 125] (Leviticus 20:15).
Madzyhon wakes up Hapusia, who thinks that after what the old bastard has done to her, there is no sense in coming back home, and hastily turns the dishonoured girl out of the house; but he orders her to let in the dog, which has been scratching at the door for a long time; the dog joyfully jumps onto his bed. The author draws a bitter conclusion: '… the times have come … when a poor person is valued less than even a dog' [12, p. 61]. At the same time, T. Osmachka presents the defilement as a grotesque phenomenon. The exaggeration of sexual abuse of Ukrainian women -as a mythological collisionhighlights the tragedy of the nation whose gene pool is being polluted by the invaders; they try to impose on Ukraine the inferior status of the concubine, to destroy or reduce to minimum the masculine element. Actually, this is a subconscious aim of all colonialists; in literature, the body language of certain characters reveals their true intentions.
In Ivan Bahrianyi's Defeat, the cynical song of the German soldiers is very implicative: 'Война пріма, война гут! The war is prima, the war is gut! Фрау дома, фройлян тут' [3, p. 37] Frau at home, Fräulein here'. From the mythological perspective, the meaning of such brutal war songs is deeper than their primitive form may suggest -in wartime, all men who are in the army, whatever their marital status, are regarded as single -the bridegrooms of death. In his other work, Liudyna bizhyt nad prirvoiu (A Man Runs Over a Gulf ), Ivan Bahrianyi describes a pornographic scene, which does not seem to fit into the novel's composition. A reader has to infer the implicated meaning -the infernal essence of the young mistress of the chekists; the shameless girl takes a satanic pleasure in demonstrating her gorgeous body to Kolot, who is doomed to interrogation, torture, and death. '… a disorderly bed with many scattered pillows and the crumpled featherbed; a half-naked girl spread her body leisurely over the bed lying exactly as she had been left, dizzyingly passionate embraces had obviously driven to the oblivion of sleep … The girl sat up, stretched with pleasure, lowered her naked legs down on the floor, and got out of bed. For another moment, she was standing in front of Maksym in nothing but a short underwear shirt; she did not seem to notice him' [1, p. 105]. As mythology would have it, stripping a person of his/her clothes indicates that the person is of no value for the community; a naked person receives the status of an outcast; allowing others to see one's nakedness is associated with death; thus Ivan Bahrianyi's text implicates the idea that war is total lawlessness.
It has been stated above that bodily flaws, apart from being negative signs, can indicate that a person is chosen for a special mission in life. A disabled artist Fedir Dziuba (the novel Rai (Paradise) by Vasyl Barka) takes a great personal risk creating a sculpture which symbolizes independent Ukraine. And in Ivan Bahrianyi's novel Marusia Bohuslavka, another deformed artist looks for a model for the image of Ukraine and chooses a girl of loose morals contemptuously called 'the general line' * because * the general line (or the general line of the Party) -a cliché: the directives of the governing bodies of the Communist Party.
she serves as a prostitute for high-ranking city officials; once, she was a daughter of a merchant, or even a bishop; then there happened things she could not change, and they drastically affected her life.
'… <she> fell from the highest heights … to the very bottom of the tragic reality, one could not fall lower, she fell into the category of the "socially alien element", the "class enemy", "the former"' [6, p. 140]. At first glance, the author's attitude to the character is condescendingly sympathetic; but then he draws a clear conclusion: 'She is a tragic personification of the whole lost generation thrown down to the bottom of society, and they can rise … only paying that price …' [6, p. 140]. This is what Liudmyla Bohomazova (Marusia Bohuslavka) and the whores in a restaurant -the daughters of rich farmers deported to Siberia (The Tiger Trappers) have in common.
'The girls were talking in Ukrainian!.. They try to survive hunger and cold, lawlessness and death; they survive at the expense of beauty and youth, honour and the happiness of motherhood' [5, p. 189-190]. Though there is also a difference between the characters; if it were not for the scene with a different Liudmyla Bohomazova -the one painted by hunchbacked Danylo Shyhymaha, a reader would perceive the girl's tragedy solely from the social class perspective.
The actors are impressed with the masterpiece, and the other characters suddenly see the girl as the personification of female beauty, the apotheosis of grief.
'Olha gasped quietly, Ata managed to control herself, but yelped inwardly… On the stand, there stood -Liudmyla Bohomazova! But -what a girl! Unspeakably beautiful. Not the Liudmyla Bohomazova everyone knew, a lost soul, a despised 'general line', but … heavenly exquisite. As sad and pure as an angel!.. Her features reflected the human soul purified through sorrow and tragedy … The soul that belongs to God…' [2, p. 290]. Together with Ataleia, a reader realizes that the artist has put his heart in the work, that he loves this girl, whose reputation has been destroyed by the high-ranking libertines, and in this case, the Domain of Art is higher than the Domain of Morality -what matters is not the attitude of the society described in the book, but the vision of the sculptor. Marina Tsvetaeva once said that to love means to see a person as God intends them to be, not the one born of their parents and created by the circumstances around them [8, p. 289]. Consider also the opinions of other outstanding people. According to Federico Fellini, the human civilization keeps expressing itself through art; Vasyl Barka believes that Heaven can be embodied only in art, which is why art is above all worldly treasures.
The human body becomes an important mythologem not only in prose, but in poetry as well. In Yevhen Malaniuk's poem, the pose of a raped, repressed, defeated, probably even dead woman -the personification of Ukraine -is quite symbolic: 'На узбіччі дороги -з Європи в Азію, 'By the side of the road -from Europe to Asia, Головою на Захід і лоном на Схід -With her head towards the West and her legs towards the East -Розпростерла солодкі смагляві м'язи' [10, p. 61] <She> has spread out her sweet tan muscles'. Obviously, the pose of the character is an allegory of the Ukrainians' intellectual longing for European civilization (the fact has been proved more than once) and the bodily, animal, masochistic paradigm of submissiveness, some kind of pathological servility of the nation, which has been a colony for ages, the desire to physically belong to the Eastern invader. Though there is a different interpretation of the image. Yevhen Malaniuk describes Ukraine not only as 'the bastard mother of Janissaries' ('байстрюча мати яничар' [10, p. 87]), but also as sinister swan-maiden Obida [10, p. 86], one of the most ominous pagan gods, and even as the witch from the famous Viy * by Gogol.
Is already raising his iron eyelids.

Півнів не чуть. І в мутній голові
The roosters are quiet. And in the dazed mind, Горить одне: що все це -ні! -не сниться' [10, p. 75-76] One thought is burning: no! -it is not a bad dream'. Thus the contexts of the thematically close poems indicate that in the already cited Za doboiu -doba. Za eroiu -era (The Succession of Epochs and Eras), which may be taken as a starting point for the discussion, the author describes the pose of the dead 'lustful Scythian hetaera' ('похотлтива скитська гетера' [10, p. 61]); the idea agrees with the archaeological finds (after all, in modern Ukrainian cemeteries, the dead are typically buried with their heads towards the West).
In Oleh Olzhych's Antropolohiia (Anthropology), the hologram of the human body is presented from both personal and national perspectives.
The origins of those passing by! Або, діждавшись слушного моменту, Or to choose the right moment Перед свічадом, з острахом в очах, And, sitting in front of the mirror, Просліджувати прадідівський шлях To trace my ancestry line По двох, а то і більше, континентах' [11, p. 131] Across two or even more continents'. Walking in the crowd, sitting in front of the mirror, the character analyzes the forms of skulls; the process, in my opinion, can be compared to a reader's analysis of a literary text -looking for similar contexts in the lives of the characters and in one's own life, for the values the character and a reader may share; the subconscious inferences from the text, comprehension of its deep underlying ideas are the main, inherent elements of this process; without them, a literary text cannon exist. Unfortunately, in most cases, critics do not try to overcome dogmatic inertia and view the implications made by literary works from the spatial perspective, though such implications have all the essential features of a temporal phenomenon.
In terms of the methodology of archetypal criticism, corporeality and the hologram of the human body in literary texts are regarded as a powerfully charged informative concept. The verbal and nonverbal forms of its expression (clothes, emotional expression, the use of the human body in order to convey certain meanings in folk culture, rituals, magic rituals, folklore), the body that is on the border of the norm (otherness, difference, ugliness, deformity, disability), the body of an 'alien', the body as a * Sotnyk -a high-ranking officer in the Cossack army. sign of being 'alien' or a sign of 'alien hostility', the body beyond the norm (a shocking, scary, repulsive, freaky body; death, illness, pain; a corpse, a mutilated body), sexuality as an instrument of provoking the other characters (and a reader), the body as a mythologem, a prime, a frame -all these are important and nonreplaceable markers of a literary character; they are inherent in any literary text as an indirect manifestation of the author's attitude.


Peter Konwitschny, Opera and Theatre Director Shaping the Profile of the Bratislava Opera of a New Millennium

Abstract The paper examines the work of the acclaimed German opera and theatre director Peter Konwitschny at the Opera of the Slovak National Theatre. The authoress bases herself on an analysis of the productions of Eugen Onegin (2005) [Eugene Onegin], by Tchaikovsky, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (2007) and Bohéma (2013) [La bohème], Janáček‘s Vec Makropulos (2015) [The Makropulos Affair], and Halévy‘s Židovka (2017) [La Juive], all of which, save for Janáček‘s opera, the Opera of the Slovak National Theatre has borrowed from foreign theatre scenes. The authoress makes a stocklist of the basic principles of Konwitschny’s direction signature and his contribution to theatre production, as well as to the artistic ensemble of the Bratislava Opera.

During the socialist regime, the contacts between Slovak opera and European operatic life were scanty. This applies to both the import and export of opera production. Even though, especially in the 1960s, the soloists of the opera ensemble of the Slovak National Theatre were considered the best in former Czechoslovakia and quite a number of them would have successfully competed with their foreign counterparts, the door to international recognition had not been opened to them. Several Slovak artists embarked on an outstanding career path toward success in illegal immigration (the most brilliant examples are Lucia Popp and Edita Gruberová, both sopranos of world renown). Eventually, the ideologists of normalisation realised that the presentation of outstanding artists abroad was not only profitable for the regime (the state agency Slovkoncert, founded in 1969, was mandated to supervise their foreign performances), but it also was a way to improving the reputation of the socialist arts. The generation that followed (Peter Dvorský, Sergej Kopčák, Magdaléna Hajóssyová, Gabriela Beňačková and others) was no longer banned from performing in the world opera houses.
While in the vocal arts the communication thrived on an individual basis (thanks to Slovak artists performing abroad and to the guest performances of foreign artists in the Slovak National Theatre, abbr. SND), the information regarding European production trends did not reach us via direct interactive meetings but almost exclusively via secondary channels. Among the generally more accessible sources of information were largely the reviews by foreign critics (or by a handful of Slovak critics allowed to travel abroad) of the progressive productions by directors Walter Felsenstein and his students Götz Friedrich, Joachim Herz, Harry Kupfer, all from East Germany. Personal encounters of the opera ensemble of SND with their foreign audiences and producers were rare under socialism. Between 1948Between -1989, there were three directors permanently domiciled outside Czechoslovakia staging five opera productions at the Bratislava opera house. Nikolai Severianovich Dombrowski, director of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, staged two productions of Russian classical works at SND, Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin (1952) [Eugene Onegin] and Modest P. Musorgsky's Boris Godunov (1954). Indeed, these were dramatic forms conforming to the ideologically enforced poetics of descriptive realism, however, thanks to the consistency of all production elements and elaborate actors' work following Stanislavski's acting principles, they had a positive effect on the requirements to be met by the future opera productions in Bratislava. In the early 1960s, the guest director Klaus Kahl from Dresden, put a highly rated production of Paul Dessau's Odsúdenie Lukulla (1962) [The Condemnation of Lucullus], on the SND opera stage, in which the elements of Brechtian theatre were applied. A year later, in a similar vein and with a more modest feedback, he staged Wagner's Tannhäuser (1963). The last project to be launched by foreign creative professionals on the SND opera stage before November 1989 had been a successful production of Gershwin's jazz opera Porgy and Bess (1974), which, similarly to its Leipzig staging earlier on, was produced by a German team of theatre professionals under the guidance of director Günther Lohse.
Although the socio-political climate after November 1989 changed and the ideological barriers to the influx of theatre inspirations from abroad were lifted, a more intensive communication between Slovak opera theatres and their foreign counterparts was not triggered. For the sake of comparison: While the audiences of Prague National Theatre, soon after the split of Czechoslovakia, frequented the productions of acclaimed European directors (David Pountney, Robert Wilson, Ursel and Carl-Ernst Herrmann, David Radok, and others), the Slovak prime national scene, for the decade that followed, remained to be a secluded milieu. And even though there were isolated cases of international acquisitions, they were largely mediocre in terms of artistic value, without a potential to improve the perception of a quality opera theatre in Slovakia. A change in the understanding of the significance of international discourse was achieved with Marián Chudovský taking up the position of SND Opera musical director (2002 -2006). His most valued acquisition was German director Peter Konwitschny, whose collaboration with SND was started in 2005, by staging Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

The opera poetics of Peter Konwitschny
Vladimír Zvara, Slovak musicologist and dramaturge of all Konwitschny's productions staged in Bratislava, introduced the Slovak audience to the fundamental principles of Peter Konwitschny's musical theatre in a programme booklet to Eugene Onegin: "It is impossible to compartmentalise Peter Konwitschny and associate him with any style, with any clearly defined stream in the history of opera direction. It is symptomatic that in his early years, he was inspired by two prominent personalities embodying two basic principles of modern opera direction: Walter Felsenstein at the Comic Opera Berlin and Ruth Berghaus at Berliner Ensemble. Felsenstein's realism and Berghaus' conceptual and radically stylised, almost choreographic approach to opera direction, are present side by side in Konwitschny's work, whereby style turns are oftentimes abrupt and conspicuous. The compactness and inner logics of his productions stem from a director's clear view of the work, of its theme and of its mission rather than from a strict purity of style and from the consistency with which he translates his view in each and every detail of the production." 1 The impact of Walter Felsenstein's psychological realism on Peter Konwitschny's poetics of music and drama is especially patent from the way he focuses on the singing actor. Like Felsenstein, Konwitschny insists that the singer's emotions be strictly based on music: the dramaturgic motivation of a character must be internalised by the singer so that it becomes his/her personal motivation. Only then an opera production will be emotionally credible. 2 Working as an assistant to Ruth Berghaus has been imprinted in Peter Konwitschny's capacity for artistic abstraction, reduction and stylisation. Colour semantics and visual arts per se play an important role in Konwitschny's productions. Despite that, he did not become another Robert Wilson or Pierre Audi who, similarly to Berghaus, base their productions on ingenious and meticulously construed choreography. The artistic uniqueness of Peter Konwitschny stems from an ability to carry out an indepth analysis of characters' psychology and of their dramatic motivation which is derived not only from the libretto but also from music.
Peter Konwitschny has introduced high staging criteria to Slovak opera: a clearly declared artistic view and rigorous professional requirements imposed on all the elements of a stage form. Until Eugene Onegin was premiered, Jozef Bednárik had been the most consistent shaper of the art of acting in local opera productions. 3 He, too, viewed performers as singing actors. However, he did not attempt for an indepth psychoanalysis. He shaped distinct character types on stage and his productions were oftentimes concluded with overt morality. By contrast, Peter Konwitschny puts his heroes under a psychoanalytic magnifying glass and their profiles are contoured in sharp details: each one is alive, evolves and reacts. The omnipresent feature of his direction signature is also noticeable in his five Bratislava productions. Three of them were the re-makes of older productions: Eugene Onegin The productions by Peter Konwitschny are generally noted for a high rate of social criticism, political commitment, and moral compellingness. The director deliberately digresses from the interpretive tradition of produced theatrical works and subjects it to rethinking and, oftentimes, even negates it. He locates conventional opera models in a new period, emotional, psychological, societal (etc.) contexts. He understands opera theatre as a space in which the creator may (or is literally obliged to) mediate his view of society to the audience along with the values it upholds (or disproves). Konwitschny's ambition is not to have the viewer passively succumb to aesthetic experience, within the meaning of Brechtian epic theatre 4 , but rather have him/her leave the theatre disturbed, concerned, and contemplating. Similar thoughts are to be found in the production of a number of contemporary opera directors. However, Peter Konwitschny stands out from this artistic community by his musical proficiency and a deep knowledge of opera scores. This enhances the value of his direction arguments and ensures that performers hold him in high regard. 5 In his essay, Vladimír Zvara refers to this important aspect: "While many other directors base their understanding of an opera work largely on the analysis of a libretto, to Peter Konwitschny, music is equally important. The uniqueness of his direction is largely connected with his capacity to listen to music. (...) Konwitschny carefully listens to music from the very first beat of the prelude, he scrutinises what music communicates "between the lines", which character on stage is given its voice, whom it advocates or convicts of hypocrisy. A poignant analysis of the score, combined with an unbridled theatre fantasy, gives a sound basis and strength to his direction ideas." 6 Peter Konwitschny was born to a family of musicians: he is the son of a reputable 20th century conductor Franz Konwitschny (1901 -1962), his mother was a singer. The milieu had a strong impact on his proclivity to music. "I grew up with music, and I believe that from this upbringing, I have learned to understand the nature of music from childhood. To understand that music not only consists of tones, but rather reflects on human existence. This I believe to be a central prerequisite for the work of an opera director." 7 The presented study shows that Konwitschny's opera productions, including Bratislava stagings, are full of mise-en-scènes whose visual impressiveness and scenic expressiveness follow directly from music situations.
Another permanent feature of the director's works pinpointed below, is a desire for human nearness and sincerity in interpersonal relations, including love relationships and furthermore, respect for the family and frustration from its destruction. The themes almost constantly present in Konwitschny's creation come hand in hand with an analysis of distorted or pathological family or partner relationships. He ad-mits that the angle of perception of society is determined by his own childhood: "As a child, I perceived a lack of closeness. My father was rarely at home. My parents' marriage was typical for the relationships in western culture: the moments of jealousy were followed by passionate love, only to break up in the end. I was the only child and I had to cope with everything by myself. Having had such a childhood, the yearning for closeness may turn into a permanent need." 8

Family crisis
The yearning for closeness and inveteration is a powerful theme of his production Eugene Onegin, which is a charge against indolent, superficial and emotionally burn-out society, where partner and parental love were replaced with tokenism. The first mise-en-scène introduces the audience to the atmosphere of landowner Larina's country estate: Two resigned old women drown their cynicism in vodka, two young girls covet love and happiness. While quiet Tatyana finds them in books, temperamental Olga is more active. But her cheerfulness is artificial. Konwitschny's interpretation goes hand in hand with Tchaikovsky's music, which is no way near the happygo-lucky text of Olga's aria Ja nye sposobna k grusti tomnoy [I am no good at languid melancholy]. The melody was composed using unusually low-pitched notes with a tragic overtone. The song about yearning for a happy life is sung by Konwitschny's Olga with the defiance of a misunderstood child. In conclusion, she slumps onto her mother's lap, in vain waiting for her embrace. Surprised, her mother lifts her hands, holding a liquor glass. "Heaven sends us habits in place of happiness" 9 -following the philosophy of self-preservation instinct, her heart turned so arid that she was unable to feel any emotions for her own children. Neither Olga's insouciance nor Tatyana's melancholy are internalised. Her love of books, chaotically cluttered in the corner of the stage, covers up her helplessness resulting from a depressive and an unreceptive environment in which she lives. In love with Onegin, she asks her nanny Filippyevna, who is the only being close to her, to narrate the story of her youth. But it brings her no consolation: nanny's recollections are the recollections of a life without love, of an arranged marriage of two children and a hard life amidst a strange family.
In Puccini's Madama Butterfly the director, too, escalated the timeless aspects of drama, of a tragedy of a disintegrated family, of a bleak situation of abandoned wo-men and unhappy fates of children raised in a pathological environment. In the second act, after Pinkerton leaves his Japanese bride and returns to America not knowing that Cio-Cio-San expects a son, Konwitschny veritably portrays an unhealthy environment which is bound to affect the shaping of a child's identity: Cio-Cio-San and Suzuki, still wearing traditional Japanese garments, with black sunglasses giving them American look, are seated on a sofa covered up in American flag, placed in the corner of a broken stage, looking as if they have been doing nothing else but waiting in the past three years of Pinkerton's absence. They are resigned, low-spirited, with a comforting bottle of liquor close at hand. When Cio-Cio-San learns from consul Sharpless that Pinkerton arrives to take the child away from her and plans to raise him with his American wife Kate in the United States, the Japanese geisha retreats from the way of her child's happiness. However, the child must not see his mother dying, so that his life overseas is not burdened by a traumatic experience. Butterfly ties a black ribbon around his eyes and gently directs him onto stage, to seek happiness she was not graced with.
In Janáček's The Makropulos Affair Peter Konwitschny expanded the European interpretive tradition of this philosophical work by a novel and ingenious view: His Elina Makropulos/Emilia Marty was not an overripe lady tired of her three-hundredyear life, but rather a young woman emotionally stuck at an age she had drunk the fatal elixir of life. She was a victim of multiple abuse by males: The first time when an elixir of life was tested on her by her father, court alchemist and physician to Emperor Rudolf II who, by administering untested potion, put the life of his own child at risk. She shows the evidence of abuse to Albert Gregor when he threatens her life because Emilia's rejection made him flow into an hysterical rage: "See the scar on my neck? There was this man who said he'd kill me. I'm not gonna strip myself naked for you to see all my other trophies. What makes men think they must kill me?" The unscrupulousness and cruelty of the central character acquires an emotionally appellative quality: it alerts to a situation when abused and unloved children grow up to become individuals with a callous personality. In Bratislava production, Emilia Marty is impersonated by a thirty-year old actress Linda Ballová, petite blond of girlish appearance. The male territory (i.e. Dr. Kolenatý's law office) is not intruded upon by her mysterious mature charm but rather by her adolescent cheekiness and by her showing no respect for the dignity of legal profession and for male gender per se. After all, the space given to her by Konwitschny allows for no other attitude: all men in his production are embarrassing figures, the representatives of a rigid and an unviable world. Lawyer Kolenatý's aloofness is irritating, his assistant Vítek is a sleazy fellow, the self-possessed Jaroslav Prus sadistically vents his frustration on his son, simpleton Janek, and the pitiful hysteric Albert Gregor desperately clings to a chance for salvation, which he hopes to find with a beautiful mysterious woman, unaware that he has a crush on his great-great grandmother.

Strong women versus weakish men
The contraposition between strong women and weakish men identified in The Makropulos Affair as yet another vital characteristic of Konwitschny's signature is present in all his Bratislava productions. However, Konwitschny's heroines are not driven by emancipation ambitions or by gender equality. Adverse life situations and especially incompetent men made them strong.
Onegin, as perceived by Konwitschny, is not a bored dandy who ridicules the chaste love of a guileless young woman, kills a friend without batting an eyelid and quits in quest of new impulses. He is an unanchored young man, fearing life and drowning his uncertainty in liquor. Despite his growing affection for Tatyana, he is unable to assume responsibility for their relationship, fearing that love would eventually turn into a habit, which is a repulsive disease bringing death to the people around him. The duel, in which he kills his friend Lensky, takes place under the pressure of the onlookers yearning for a scandal. Lensky's death is an immediate consequence of Onegin's inability to stand up against what society thinks, against a society he holds in contempt and which frustrates him by its aloof behaviour toward him. Among the most powerful scenes is Polonaise at the beginning of the sixth scene. Konwitschny, who takes ballet in opera as composers' concession to the period audience taste, introduces a highly dramatic and cathartic scene instead of an aristocratic dance: half frantic Onegin, in ravishing rhythm, attempts to dance with the dead body of his friend. Upon return from abroad, where he tried to escape the void in his life, he gets to know Tatyana Larina, the stunning spouse of Prince Gremin and he falls victim to a devastating passion. His emotional outburst (arioso Uzhel' ta samaya Tatyana) is a musical variation of Tatyana's girls' passion in the second scene (Puskai pogibnu ya, no pryehzde). A breathtaking musical bridge, built by Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky between two people, whose feelings did not meet at the right time and in the right place, was enhanced by the musically educated director: visually, it is an identical mise-en-scène but with a different cast. Tatyana's sense of duty and respect for her spouse prevail over an emotional tie to Onegin, although her moral victory means having to keep internally dying for the rest of her life. In the final scene Onegin joins the company of others, leaving Tatyana on the proscenium, so deplorably alone.
In Peter Konwitschny's interpretation, even Pinkerton is not a heartless hedonist who comes to irresponsibly pick and trample underfoot an oriental flower. In the introductory act he is a victim of his own lust, in the final act he is unable to fight his own weakish nature. When he arrives at Cio-Cio-San's house, after having spent three years in the USA, he is accompanied by wife Kate and consul Sharpless. Right from the outset, the latter had been fatherly sympathetic and compassionate towards Cio-Cio-San, but himself being a softy and alcoholic, he failed to protect her from the fate of a "puppet" wife. Infuriated by the situation they got him into, he keeps shoving his companion, showing his anger and contempt for him. Pinkerton lost his dignity and devastated, he cries his heart out in an aria, bidding farewell to his love nest and to his own honour (Addio, fiorito asil). He tries to draw the curtain and cover up his disgrace from the audience. While in the first act, together with Cio-Cio-San, he manages to maintain the intimacy by keeping the curtain drawn, this time, Pinkerton is not strong enough -the moment of humiliation takes place before the audiences and before his lawful wife. By an elaborate mise-en-scène the director questions the functionality of Benjamin F. Pinkerton's family: after this event, wife Kate will never be able to respect and love him. Konwitschny's concept of La bohème narrates the fear of loneliness, of death and of love that comes with the responsibility for the beloved/loving person. Konwitschny's bohemians are preoccupied with themselves: they are pushed to the edge of society, they are individuals without prospects, poor, shivering with cold and hungry. Their teasing is not frolicsome any more and jokes cover up the blows received. The anger over a failed life and subdued frustration strip them of compassion and empathy. What holds them together is need and inertia rather than friendship beyond grave. Mimì, the seamstress who makes her living by embroidering artificial flowers, does not become an accepted part of the group, although she is more alive than any one of them, despite being fatally ill. She is different -she believes in love and is not afraid of it. It is not an innocent doll that enters Rodolfo's room that succumbs to the spell of a charming poet, but rather an active woman grabbing at her chance for happiness. While looking for a key, she is the first to establish physical contact by taking Rodolfo by the hand (Che gelida manina). She, too, like most of Konwitschny's opera heroines, encountered a weakling. First, when leaving café Momus with other rejoicing bohemians, he forgets her standing on the proscenium, with Mussetta's fur coat in her hands. When she joins them in the final act, coughing on the threshold of eternity, their (and his) immediate emotion is the fear of death. Rodolfo fails the confrontation with human finality: when his friends leave him on the stage with the dead Mimì, he is deranged and has no energy to join his friends or to sink next to this sweetheart's dead body. The prototype of a weakling who, unlike Onegin, Pinkerton or Rodolfo, does not arouse a pinch of compassion or affection, is Prince Léopold from Konwitschny's production of Židovka [La Juive] by Jacques Fromental Halévy. A Christian noble who, in love for a beautiful Jewish woman Rachel, pretends to profess her religion, is unable to stand up for his dame and is the immediate cause of her doom. At the time when the story of Halévy's opera unfolds (Constance 1414), sexual relations between Christians and Jews were strictly forbidden and breaking the ban was punishable by death. Rachel knows nothing of Léopold's real identity. Disguised as a young Jew, he first makes Rachel his accomplice, but runs away from her when the only chance to preserve their love, i.e. converting to Judaism, is wasted. The bed of his lawful bride, Princess Eudoxie, becomes his shelter. He first hides under her blanket and when Rachel publicly accuses him of committing adultery, he hides under the bed. The opposite of a male cowardly character are two strong females. Rachel is like an Amazon woman: bold and dauntless in love, determined in revenge and prepared for self-destruction (she accused Prince Léopold in public wearing an explosives belt she wanted to blast off to kill the much-hated and hateful Christians). Princess Eudoxie fought the hateful world with different weapons: she showed devoted love to wretched Léopold and compassion with Rachel which changed to friendship and respect unadulterated by religious bias.

Konwitschny and Brecht
In the introduction to this study, Konwitschny's inclination towards Brecht's concept of epic theatre was mentioned. The inclination is transformed into alienation principles, which are yet another constant feature of his direction signature. Every single Konwitschny's production staged in Bratislava is typical by having the lights switched on in the auditorium while the performance is on. The meaning of these signals is obvious: in the dimmed auditorium, the audience ought not to be overwhelmed by burgher emotions over an opera story, but rather be a component responsible part of socially engaged drama. In Eugene Onegin, Tatyana's Letter Scene takes place with all the lights switched on and the same applies to Onegin's monologue that follows. The lights are on when they are crying their hearts out from a bridge erected in front of the orchestra pit or when the final ball scene unfolds with Tatyana, Gremin and high society seated in the boxes on the far end of the first balcony. For the very first time in the history of Slovak opera theatre, the audience experienced that the light in the auditorium did not dilute theatrical illusion, on the contrary, viewers became part of the illusion.
In Puccini's La bohème, in which the director presented a theatrically evocative truth about poverty that is neither romantic nor noble and although we instinctively run away from death, at the same time, we keep walking towards it, the light in the auditorium is ruthlessly switched on in the last scene with the dying Mimì. Cio-Cio-San, too, dies before the eyes of the audience, with the auditorium illuminated. In The Makropulos Affair the light does not just prevent the viewer from being passively over- heroine offers a formula of immortality to the audience. "I don't want it any more! Take it. Would anyone want it?" But no one in the audience or the scared male protagonists in judges' gowns backed-up by a choir standing next to the rows of viewers is willing to take the formula for a miraculous elixir from Emilia's hands. In Janáček's libretto it is burnt down by Vítek's daughter Kristina, upon which Emilia Marty sinks to the floor, uttering the words of the Greek prayer "Pater Hemon". In Konwitschny's production, the girls incinerate it together and leave, hand in hand, packed with trunks, taking the back entrance to Bratislava streets, to real (i.e. mortal) life.
Alienation principles present, to a greater or lesser extent, in all Konwitschny's Bratislava productions have been most intensively captured in Židovka [La Juive]. The lights in the auditorium are on during the most beautiful musical parts of the opera: the self-questioning arias of Rachel (Il va venir -she discloses her worries and remorses of conscience for her secret love affair with Léopold), and of Éléazar (Rachel, quand du Seigneur la grâce tutélaire -he is swayed by the feelings of guilt for his daughter's nearing death). They are public confessions of opera protagonists, stripped of any intimacy whatsoever. The viewers/listeners are not allowed to appreciate the breathtaking orchestral interlude, played with the curtain drawn, because a multiple point reflector launched above the orchestra pit is directed at them. The director draws the audience in the centre of events when the conflict between Rachel and Léopold escalates. When the Prince reveals his real confession, the female performer, by an impromptu disparaging remark, comments on his emotional outburst and in a civil way addresses the viewers, standing amidst them ("Ah, yes, the tenor is singing an aria! Would your man be doing that at home?"). But what may cause the biggest discomfort to the audience are choir members scattered around the auditorium: wa- ving paper flags uproariously, they keep laughing at the quartet of Rachel, Éléazar, Léopold, and Ruggiero -De ces nobles guerriers, which in a grotesque actor hyperbole is unfolding on the stage. Aware or unaware, the effect present in immersion theatre performances is induced: the viewer observes choir members at a close distance while he/she is aware that his/her reactions are being observed by them. For the Slovak opera audience (which, in principle, is conservative) such a situation is particularly unpleasant, as it is not used to having its personal space transgressed. However, Konwitschny has this "heretic" approach internally well-argued.
In the quartet, Jacques Fromental Halévy composed light, in places trivial, operette music (conductor Robert Jindra, author of Bratislava musical production, stated in an interview given before the premiere that: "Possibly, Halévy's idea was to accentuate the cynical facet of this tragic story" 10 ), which Peter Konwitschny skillfully used with respect to the alienation principle.

The creator of engaged theatre
Alongside a psycho-analytical facet, Peter Konwitschny's productions are noted for their distinct socio-critical dimension. The latter stems from the artist's strong, verbally and creatively proclaimed leftist orientation and, in principle, he rejects capitalism ("Philosophically, I'm a Marxist. I shall never appease with capitalism, because it is inhumane and destroys the Earth." 11 ), its consumerism (the belief that men's only entitlement to existence is consumption in his opinion is only beneficial for "the profits of transnational companies: Stupid, uncultured and unhappy people buy more." 12 ) and aggression which is its immediate consequence ("There is only one law that applies to capitalism: God is dead and money is God. This leads to increased brutality. (...) Every civilisation gone extinct has been replaced by another one. I'm afraid, we'll use our chance to be last." 13 ). In his case, however, it is not a shallow implanting of political or ideological themes in an operatic work. According to Konwitschny "the stories in operas give an account of crucial events that affect our entire civilisation. Being a director, I only have to show what they are about. (...) Even in Ancient Greece essential questions of life were debated in the theatre. It seems to be the last place where dialogue is still possible." 14 La Juive, the most recent Konwitschny's production in Bratislava, carries the most powerful political and critical charge. Halévy's opus experiences new-era European renaissance, which is largely due to the polarised currentness of the theme of religious and cultural intolerance. The operatic piece was staged by Peter Konwitschny in line with this spirit: not as a le grand opéra with its traditional illustrative tableaux 15 or a drama and a historical account of events of the long-gone past, but rather as a warning appeal to modern society. In his case, this was no ideological campaigning, with very good people on the one hand and others who are commensurately worse on the other hand. Konwitschny does not aspire to become an (political) arbitrator of either of the parties involved; he names and shames human intolerance without a straightforward confessional delineation. Save for the clerical collar of Cardinal de Brogny and Princess Eudoxie's prayer book, confessional signs are not accentuated. There are no crosses put up on the stage, no kips or seven-branched menorahs. The visual dominating element of the scene, the rosetta of a temple window, is made of a mosaic of minute stained glass pieces, however, only detailed photographs show their religious motives. From the viewer's perspective, it looks like an abstract colourful kaleidoscope. To Konwitschny's mind, it is not religion per se, but rather the acts in its name that are the true bone of contention covered up by religious fundamentalism. Had the libretto not been about Christians and Jews, a drama of the hatred between the blue and the red would have unfolded before the audiences (i.e. two colours on the hands of adversaries help distinguish between them). In it, one camp would benefit from the strength of the herd in a savage way and the other one would obstinately reject respecting the culture of the majority (by pounding on the steel structure, Éléazar deliberately disturbs sabbatical quietude), with revenge being their personal mission statement.
This solution not only helps the viewer find his/her way through the story but also it contains a powerful semantic energy in colour symbolism. When in physical contact, the hands covered in paint leave colour traces on the enemy's garment; in the reconciliation scene, Rachel and Eudoxie wash in a bucket of water and their hands stay clean; and, as critic Robert Bayer points out: "If the blue and the yellow ones shake hands, by mixing two primary colours you get green colour which stands for hope, peace, and reconciliation" 16 . The most intensive impact is that of the finale of the third act. After Rachel, hiding an explosives belt under her coat, terrifies the Christians by suicidal bombing, all soloists and choir members are assigned to an assembly line. Yellow and blue hands are joined in by green, red and purple hands and with the music escalating the manufacture of bomb belts is launched, in a dehumanised machine choreography reminiscent of Pink Floyd: The Wall, a film by Alan Parker. Throughout history, violence has been a companion to humanity, while race and creed have not proven important.

Peter Konwitschny and the Bratislava opera ensemble
An important aspect of the Bratislava remakes of the productions by Peter Konwitschny is that the director came to SND to personally rehearse them. This is not usual practice. For instance, two months prior to putting it on SND stage, La Juive had been staged by Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, where its rehearsal was in the hands of Konwitschny's assistant Dorian Dreher. Although Konwitschny has not created original opera productions in Bratislava, save for The Makropulos Affair, he meticulously tailored older productions to the needs of SND opera ensemble. Repetitive collaboration with an uncompromising theatre professional had a particularly positive impact upon the actors' profiling of the opera ensemble. Thanks to a systematic monitoring of this component of the work of the Bratislava opera ensemble, the positive turn cannot not be overlooked. After La Juive was premiered, several reviews raised objections regarding the prevalence of Konwitschny's productions in SND repertory (in 2016/2017 season, there were four of his productions: Eugene Onegin, La bohème, The Makropulos Affair and La Juive). However, a long-term and continuous collaboration with opera houses (Hamburg, Graz) is symptomatic for Peter Konwitschny's creation. It seems, as if in opposition to the constantly travelling keeps returning to an artistic domicile despite his guest performances abroad (much along the lines of Bertolt Brecht, his model). For the sake of maintaining the diversity of the repertory, it is desirable to have Bratislava theatre seek collaboration with other inspirational personalities of contemporary opera direction. Regardless of that, the impact of Peter Konwitschny's direction mastery on the quality and weight of the art profile of Opera of the Slovak National Theatre is unquestionable.
The study was developed within the framework of the grant project APVV 15-0764 Slovak Theatre and Contemporary European Theatre Culture -Continuity and Discontinuity.


Study of the Right of Foreign Ship Against State Sovereignty (Case Study Indonesia)

Recognition of the archipelagic concept accommodated in chapter IV United Nations Conventions Law of The Sea (LOSC) 1982. The implication of this recognition is archipelagic states have sovereignty for their marine space. There are 3 zonation in sea sovereignty, that are inland water, territorial waters and archipelagic water. However, only in inland water that archipelagic states has full sovereignty such as on land, while another zone, it has followed by other states rights, One of which is right of passage. The right of another state passage is consisted by right of innocent passage, right of archipelagic sealine passage and there is also right of transit passage, which one all of that right of passage are depending on zones depending on the zone that is crossed. Talked about archipelagic sea-lanes passage (ASLP), Indonesia has to determine 3 archipelagic sea lanes passage and the consequence that all foreign ships should pass over that routes. For that reason, in this paper will discuss Indonesian sea sovereignty zone and right another state inside, along with implications for Indonesia after determination of archipelagic sealine passage.

Based on these conventions, the archipelagic state has sovereignty over the whole territory of the sea and all regimes inside of archipelagic baseline. Sea sovereignty of the archipelagic state sea, can be divided (based on archipelagic base-line) into several zones, comprise the sovereignty in regime inland waters, regime archipelagic waters and regime territorial waters. 4 Each zone has a different regime, even with this zoning concept will make a difference between the concepts of sovereignty in the sea with sovereignty on land, and will impact on the difference of navigation regime in each zone of the waters of an archipelagic state.
Recognition of the archipelagic sovereignty caused a consequence on international interest had already existed. The Archipelagic state is obliged to ensure the rights of users state to passing the sea zone of an archipelagic state. That zone includes the right of innocent passage in the territorial sea, archipelagic sea line passage (ASLP) in archipelagic waters and the rights of transit passage in the strait has been established Even when using archipelagic sea line passage, then any passing ships can use normal mode in the meaning of sailing normally, should not be restricted and unobstructed passage for example submarine could cross an archipelagic sea line without being disturbed and with D ¿[HG SRVLWLRQ GLYH LQ WKH ZDWHU MXVW DV VDLOLQJ RQ WKH KLJK VHDV 7KLV is certainly different from the right of innocent passage in the territorial sea, where at the time of sailing ships then the subs are required to QDYLJDWH RQ WKH VXUIDFH RI WKH ZDWHU DQG VKRZ WKH ÀDJ 10 Indonesia is the one and (only) archipelagic state in the world, which has been, assigns archipelagic sea-lanes (ASL). Although Indonesia has set three (3) archipelagic sea lanes known as archipelagic sea lanes passage (ASLP) which connects the north and south however concern and debate about sovereignty nonetheless appear. Use of the concept routes normally and normal mode in archipelagic sea-lanes currently remains a dilemma for archipelagic state. This occurs because an archipelagic state cannot prohibit, interfere and even close the sea-lanes Foreign cruise ships that crossed its territory, so the concept "regarded" could interfere implementation an archipelagic state sovereignty. Normal mode applicable in ASLP make archipelagic sea-lanes in Indonesia as At the level of practical implementation of archipelagic sea lanes regime seemed to make the archipelagic sea be open and free navigability, "seemed to" there are still regime of the high seas in Indonesian archipelagic sea lanes passage, especially with ASLP archipelagic state is not allowed to interfere and banned navigation. Thus, in this paper will focus on the discussion about how real archipelagic sovereignty water after determination Indonesian ASL in terms of international law of the sea.

II. ARCHIPELAGIC STATE AS A RESULTS OF CONSENSUS
The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UN-CLOS III) is an important conference in the history of international law because of the scope, substance of the issues with which it is concerned, and represents a major international experiment in decision making by consensus. So this conference regarded as a unique event, due to Most of the attention it has attracted so far has been focused on the problems, progress, and prospects of the conference 11 without formal votes. This archipelagic state concept was pioneered by Indonesia and the Philippines where at that time still unknown in international law and international law of the sea. An archipelagic state concept is a geographical concept of state which consists of islands and oceans so that archipelagic state will use the straight archipelagic baselines of all the outer islands thus making all the waters inside the base line into inland water. This is certainly got disagreement-overdeveloped states and another state who want the freedom of navigation in the sea with no one can obstruct.
Result of the seriousness of the negotiation process that long and drawn, one of Accepted consensus are the principle archipelagic state as a new legal regime at sea. $ $5&+,3(/$*,& 67$7( $1' 6($ 629(5(,*17< $UWLFOH /26& LV D IRUP RI SROLWLFDO UHFRJQLWLRQ DQG XQLW\ RQ WKH territory of archipelagic state by the international under the LOSC. An archipelagic state has sovereignty over the air space above the waters, seabed and subsoil thereof, and all natural resources contained therein. An archipelagic state Delimitation of sovereignty must be based on the baselines called archipelagic baselines. Told as archipelagic baselines : "straight archipelagic baselines joining the outermost points of the outermost islands and drying reefs of the archipelago provided that within such baselines are included the main islands and an area in which the ratio of the area of the water to the area of the land, including atolls, is between 1 to 1 and 9 to 1. 22 " Based on Archipelagic baselines, then archipelagic state territorial water sat sea, can be divided based on zoning by looking at the position of the. zoning on the territorial sovereignty of the sea includes all inter-QDO ZDWHUV DQG DUFKLSHODJLF ZDWHUV DQG WKH PLOHV RXWZDUG EDVHOLQHV territorial waters. As for the territorial sovereignty of the sea in every zone of the archipelagic state applies its own regime. Each zone of the territory would have its own navigation regime that are : Innocent passage, transit passage and archipelagic sea line passage (ASLP) that % 6($ 629(5(,*17< =21( $1' 5,*+7 2) 3$66$*( &$6( ARCHIPELAGIC STATE)

Internal waters and no right of navigation
Internal Waters is a zone sovereignty states, which lie on the land side of normal baseline from, then each islands will have its own baseline, drawn according to the normal principles. Internal water is a measured, including lakes, rivers, canals, ports, bays, and historic bay. A coastal state has complete authority to control access of vessels, both private and governmental over its internal waters. International law authorizes states because internal waters adjoin the land territory of state of a state. This authority is nearly as comprehensive as sovereignty over the landmasses in other words coastal state enjoys full territorial sovereignty over them.
Effect determination of internal waters is the closing of the entire sea area previously not considered so, so that no right of innocent passage for foreign vessels as through the territorial sea. However, when the foreign ship enters the port or other internal waters, ships put themselves to the territorial sovereignty of the coastal state. Additionally, specialized in this zone, An archipelagic state able to close and prohibit or allow Navigation to stopover on the port or entering inland waters when An archipelagic state wants, 30 in this zone absolute territorial waters of owned by coastal state then the setting is subject to under its national law. QDXWLFDO PLOHV WRZDUGV WKH KLJK VHDV drawn from archipelagic straight baseline of archipelagic states outer islands. Although the territorial sea is the realm of coastal state sovereignty, but sovereignty is relatively because of other states rights namely "innocent passage rights" which are subject based on international law of innocent passage. 33 %DVHG RQ DUW RI /26& SURYLGHV LQ WKLV regard that:

The Territorial Sea and Innocent Passage
"Passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal state. Such passage shall take place in conformity with this convention and with other rules of international law". Navigation carried out in the territorial waters must necessarily just traversing that sea without entering internal waters or calling at a roadstead or port facility outside internal waters; or proceeding to or from internal waters or a call at such roadstead or port facility. 34 Another requirement when ships through innocent passage that the cruise must necessarily done continuously, submarines and other underwater vehi-FOHV DUH UHTXLUHG WR QDYLJDWH RQ WKH VXUIDFH DQG WR VKRZ WKHLU ÀDJ other than that, every passing ship must be subject to coastal state laws and regulations and also international law for the security and safety of navigation.
Even though other states has rights of innocent passage, Due to territorial sea regime is still in a coastal state sovereignty zone so coastal state still be able to take procrastination or even ban or restrict for passing ships in the territorial waters. Procrastination can be applied when coastal state concerned to conduct combat training or to a cause that GH¿QLWH DQG FOHDU VXFK DV IRU WKH SURWHFWLRQ RI VDIHW\

Archipelagic Waters as a Sui Generis and ASLP
Archipelagic water is a zone of sovereignty that solely owned by Archipelagic State enclosed by archipelagic baselines drawn. Of this zone is a new concept in international law. Called by sui generis where the waters are neither like inland water regime nor the regime of territorial waters. 43 However, this zone is a special zone contained in the sovereign territory of the sea in Archipelagic State only. Sovereignty in this zone is relative, because sovereignty in the archipelagic waters subject to some of the third nations rights. According to Churchill, there are four of third nations rights over archipelagic waters that must be respected by the archipelagic State 44 which is the result of a consensus between the archipelagic State with the user state, among other things: About right of passage, in archipelagic water referred to Archipelagic Sea lines Passage (ASLP). Every state enjoyed ASLP in archipelagic sea line (ASL). The excess of ASLP is that the ship can use normal mode when crossing ASL. Basically, archipelagic sea-lanes passage is equal to transit passage in the straits regime, where the rights and obligations of users State and archipelagic State are the same "mutatis mutandis" with rights and obligations of users State and archipelagic State in the straits regime. Moreover same as straits regime, ASLP could not be deferred by the Archipelagic State (un-obstructive passage). Another specialty of this regime are when archipelagic State not specify ASL, it will apply normal routes for any sea lanes which is considered normally each of the user States.
& ,17(51$7,21$/ 675$,76 )25 ,17(51$7,21$/ 1$9,*$-TION AND TRANSIT PASSAGE Strait regime is not included into the distribution zone in the territorial sea. Strait regime closely related to passage regime / international navigation which passes through sea area called the strait. Strait for International navigation could have been among the two territorial state or in exclusive economic zone. Navigation through straits used for in-WHUQDWLRQDO SDVVDJH FDOOHG WKH WUDQVLW SDVVDJH $FFRUGLQJ WR DUW LOSC, which is called transit passage, is:

the exercise in accordance with this Part of the freedom of navigation DQG RYHUÀLJKW VROHO\ IRU WKH SXUSRVH RI FRQWLQXRXV DQG H[SHGLWLRXV WUDQVLW
of the strait between one part of the high seas or an exclusive economic zone and another part of the high seas or an exclusive economic zone. However, the requirement of continuous and expeditious transit does not preclude passage through the strait for the purpose of entering, leaving or returning from a State bordering the strait, subject to the conditions of entry to that State.
When Ships used right of transit passage, there shall be no suspension by coastal states. despite the fact that strait is in its territory (such as Malacca Strait), but the regime applicable navigation is transit passage regime. The other hand all ships using the transit passage obliged not to interfere and take action that are considered to affect the coastal state sovereignty.

Indonesia's ASLP I, for navigation from:
South China Sea -Natuna Sea -Karimata Strait -Java Sea and Sunda Strait to Hindia Ocean (or on the contrary).

ASLP IIID, for navigation from:
3DVL¿N 2FHDQ 0DOXNX 6HD 6HUDP 6HD %DQGD 6HD 2PEDL 6WUDLW -Sawu Sea -TimurSawu Island -Hindia Ocean or on the contrary. With the determination of Indonesian ASLP then all International navigation either using neither innocent passage nor the archipelagic passage shall pass "only" in Indonesia ASLP not on another sea-lane passage. The problem is Indonesia does not apply for ASLP east to west yet, giving rise varying interpretations of the routes normally who always used as a reason user state when through ASLP from East to West or on the contrary. However, according to the Indonesian version due to Indonesia has provided ASLP then there is no more another ASLP. This caused Bawean dispute between Indonesia and the United States LQ Bawean incident is a case that happened because of differing interpretations between the concept of routes normally with the interpretation of Indonesia that has been providing sea line archipelagic passage. Americans assume that because Indonesia does not provide East -West If an archipelagic State does not designate sea lanes or air routes, the right of archipelagic sea lanes passage may be exercised through the routes normally used for international navigation.
7KXV PDNLQJ WKH ÀHHW RI VKLSV DQG $PHULFDQ ZDU SODQHV SDVVLQJ and maneuvering over Bawean island because of US assume they are using their freedom of navigation as effects of the implementation of WKH QRUPDO URXWHV DV PHQWLRQHG LQ /26& DUW :KHUHDV LQ WKH opinion of Indonesia based on Article 3 paragraph 1 of the Government Regulation UHDGV Then by the Government Regulation, there is no more routes normally post-determination of 3 ASLP North / South. So the act of Ameri-FDQ ¿JKWHU PDQHXYHUV RYHU WKH LVODQG %DZHDQ FRQVWLWXWH YLRODWLRQ RI Indonesian territorial sovereignty and can interfere with the safety and security of civil aviation.

IV. DELIMITATION AND REGULATION ON SEA SOVEREIGN-TY ZONATION
Privileged of sovereignty at the sea which is different from the concept in land, must be responded by Indonesian government to prevent the occurrence of violation of the sovereignty at the sea. Due to the zone of sovereignty at the territorial sea and archipelagic water extant another states right, and only in inland water zone States have full sovereignty. Therefore Indonesian government should be immediately establish and announce delimitation of in land water zone in each of the islands, territorial zone and territorial water zone. More over any announcements and socialization should be done for Indonesian people or users states. This inland water delimitation is very important to prevent violations of sovereignty at the sea (inland water) from the existence and implementation of foreign states passage right.
Ibid, Lung -Chu Chen,p.133 Strait determination, that to be entrance and exit for archipelagic sea-lanes is indispensable to determine that the passing ship has entered into archipelagic sea regime of the States. So that can be determined whether the user state will use the innocent passage right or apply archipelagic sea-lanes passage right. This is crucial, due to differences right of navigation concept will have different legal liability on it. Even though foreign ships passage right has been awarded by LOSC for all user States, it does not mean they can sail freely. There are liabilities that must be obeyed by passing foreign ship that the passage must necessarily innocent and should not interfere with the sovereignty of the territory and Indonesian legal sovereignty as the archipelagic state.
Law or regulation must be prepared in order to regulate the procedure and terms of ship that when used foreign ships passage right in the archipelagic water zone, territorial water and the strait zone, Even though there are also, Special rules for ship regulating when trying to enter the area of inland water zones as a regime of absolute sovereignty (there is no foreign ships passage right). Other regulations that need to be established are provisions of concerning foreign ships passage when passing through the crowded straits which is not the strait for international navigation. Indonesia has two regime of strait for innocent passage / archipelagic sea lanes such as the Sunda Strait, Karimata Strait, Lombok Strait etc. and strait regime for international navigation like Malacca Strait.

V. CONCLUSION
$ERYH GLVFXVVLRQ KDV ¿UPO\ VWDWHG WKDW LQGHHG WKHUH LV QR PRUH problems with the archipelagic State sovereignty. It is obvious and UHDO LQ WKH /26& %DE ,9 DUW UHFRJQL]HV DQG UHJXODWHV sovereignty to the rights and obligations of archipelagic State and users States, that archipelagic State sovereignty of sea area consists of 3 zones, that are zone of inland waters, territorial sea and archipelagic sea. The sovereignty of the territorial waters zone has its own regime. Whereas for navigation passage consists of three forms of navigational rights which is innocent passage, transit passage and archipelagic sea lines passage.
That indeed Indonesia has been correctly assigning its ASLP. By assigning ASLP then all of Navigation passing through Indonesian territorial waters required traverse on the line determined by the Indonesian government. Determination ASLP will also be closes any user state reasons for using routes normally in straits and Indonesian sea. So with this designation will make it easier to monitor all of passing ships, because of the user state also has an obligation to comply with rules and agreements ordinances ASLP pass through.
ASLP real problems in Indonesia are not on the problem of territorial sovereignty but the inability to maintain and show sovereignty (exercises sovereignty). With normal mode concept when any ships pass through in ASLP will require equipment and highly advanced technologies. Because when vessels using the right of archipelagic sea lane passage then there would be no liabilities to give a report, so it takes radar with high technology in every ASLP choke point in order to monitor the WUDI¿F RI SDVVLQJ VKLSV LQ $6/3 Indonesian government should hasten the determination of the zoning cover inland water, territorial water and archipelagic water, so that the known boundary region where there are marine navigational rights of other states.