The exhibition was created on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the publication of November Night, which Stanisław Wyspiański wrote after a short visit to the Royal Łazienki Park. The exhibition presents the writer's aesthetic and literary inspirations and the stage history of the famous drama. On display will be, among others, photographs, posters and theatre posters, as well as costumes, props and fragments of stage decorations. 'November Night' a...

"November Night" and the Royal Baths
Stanisław Wyspiański wrote November Night after a visit to the Royal Baths Park, which occurred during his only stay in Warsaw at the turn of January and February 1898. It was the unique topography of the royal residence (historic gardens, classicist architecture) and its history that influenced the shape of the famous work. In it, the writer took up the theme of the anti-Russian uprising that broke out on the night of 29-30 November 1830 at the Officer Cadet School in the Royal Baths Park. Hence, most of the action of the drama takes place on the grounds of the royal residence: at the Officer Cadet School (today's Podchorążówka), the Palace on the Isle, the Theatre on the Isle (Amphitheatre) and the Monument to John III Sobieski. Historical events are interwoven with Greco-Roman mythology, and the protagonists are both characters from the pages of history and Olympic deities that come to life from the Bathroom statues, as well as creatures from their surroundings, such as the Satyrs and Eumenides.
"Wyspiański's Iconosphere" - what will we see at the exhibition?

The themes of the exhibition oscillate around the 19th-century history of the Royal Baths, as well as the poetic, visual and theatrical imagination of Stanisław Wyspiański. We will learn about the writer's artistic inspirations, the relationship between the Royal Baths and 'November Night', and the stage history of the drama.

The exhibition will open with the genesis of the work. Among other things, we will see original 19th-century prints of the two most important studies on the November Uprising from the collection of the National Library. These were the primary historical readings that Stanisław Wyspiański used when creating the drama. The remainder of the exhibition will show the writer's aesthetic inspirations, which included works of art from the Baths, such as the sculptures of Pallas Athena and Ares from the Palace on the Island, Homer's 'Iliad', Richard Wagner's musical dramas and the painting 'Island of the Dead' by Arnold Böcklin (a reference to the work according to Max Klinger and Jacek Malczewski on display from January 2025).

For Stanisław Wyspiański, the inspiration for the figure of Athena, apart from the Bath sculpture, was probably also her image by Gustav Klimt. A reproduction of Pallas Athena's work, used as a placard for the first exhibition of the Vienna Secession, found its way onto the cover of the magazine Ver Sacrum, in which Stanisław Wyspiański published. The magazine will be on display at the Royal Lazienki Museum.

An important part of the exhibition is the stage history of "November Night" from 1908-2022. Stanislaw Wyspiański's drawings for "November Night" will be on display, as well as theatre models by him, among others. We will also see photographs, posters and theatre posters, costumes, props and fragments of decorations, as well as documents of work on the stagings, i.e. directors' sketches and set designers' designs. Most of these objects come from the theatre's storerooms, which are not normally accessible to the public, so they will be an undoubted attraction.

The exhibition will also recall theatrical productions of November Night on the most important Polish stages; starting with the world premiere prepared on 28 November 1908, i.e. a year after Stanisław Wyspiański's death, but in accordance with his instructions, directed by Ludwik Solski at the Teatr Miejski (Municipal Theatre) in Krakow. Particularly highlighted will also be the stagings of three outstanding post-war directors: Kazimierz Dejmek's (from 1956 at the New Theatre in Łódź with stage design by Andrzej Stopka; transferred to the Polish Theatre in Warsaw in 1960), Andrzej Wajda's (presented in 1974 at the Old Theatre in Kraków with costumes by Krystyna Zachwatowicz, in 1978. recorded in the Royal Baths Park and on the streets of Warsaw for Polish Television) and Jerzy Grzegorzewski's (with decorations by Andrzej Majewski at the National Theatre after its reconstruction, in two versions in November 1997 and 2000). We will see how the Royal Baths were shown in individual performances, what metamorphoses they underwent and what symbolic meaning was given to them by theatre directors.

In addition, the exhibition will hear excerpts from musical tracks from selected stagings of 'November Night'. The drama, it is worth emphasising, is an opera, or more precisely a libretto of a musical drama in the style of Richard Wagner.