O Lungo Drom (The Long Road) ~ An Oratorio on the Sinti and Roma People ~
1 August 2024 - Concert: Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, Alban Berg Ensemble Vienna, Krakow Philharmonic Hall
O Lungo Drom translates as “the Long Road” in Romanes. This large-scale work, scored for a chamber ensemble including soprano, baritone, flute, clarinet, cimbalom, piano and string quartet, integrates texts from all around the world into an oratorio to create a Lied of the scattered Sinti and Roma. Members of the minority have lived in Europe for over 700 years. Since that time, they have been subjected to constant discrimination and persecution – punctuated by infernal periods of enslavement and genocide.
“The Long Road” is a road of longing, of yearning, a path that leads to and from remembrance; each step and footprint on this road, imbued with a profound sense of Fernweh, embraces hope and beauty through resilience and consolation. O Lungo Drom sets the words of thirteen different poets from this minority in ten languages and Romanes dialects, organized in a tripartite narrative:
I. Ascent – II. Nadir – III. Vista
Each of the three different narrative perspectives presented in the libretto of the multinational Sinti and Roma family is associated with specific ensemble groupings that produce timbral threads between diverse texts and languages. Along with a Danse Macabre, Litany and echoes of Lili Marleen from Auschwitz, these voices combine to pave and express worlds of melancholy, grief, nostalgia, desire, remorse and exultation through rhapsodic, bittersweet, elegiac and introspective lyricism. O Lungo Drom testifies to a collective identity through the prism of many voices of Sinti and Roma as citizens of different European countries. The work’s first words ring forth as a proud, encompassing and celebratory edifice to Sinti and Roma identity. They also encapsulate my own personal testimonial and confession:
Madre del alma Mother of my soul
Nací Gitano Romani I am
R.Y. Gawlick
O Lungo Drom (The Long Road)
~ An Oratorio on the Sinti and Roma People ~
Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, composer
Polish première
Clara Meloni, soprano
Christoph Filler, baritone
László Rácz, cimbalom
"O Lungo Drom (The Long Road)" - The movie
1 August 2024 - Concert: Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, O Lungo Drom (The Long Road) ~ An Oratorio on the Sinti and Roma People, Alban Berg Ensemble Vienna, Krakow Philharmonic Hall
Copyright: Central Council of German Sinti and Roma / Jarosław Praszkiewicz
Copyright: Central Council of German Sinti and Roma / Łukasz Gągulski
Concert Oratorium Booklet
Related articles on this web-site
The Long and Boundless Road
Inspired by Ralf Yusuf Gawlick’s O Lungo Drom (The Long Road), an oratorio on the Sinti and Roma people, classical pianist and author Simon Tedeschi reflects on the power of art in LIMELIGHT, a Music, Arts & Culture Magazine.
Program 2024
Commemoration 2024
2 August 2024 – European Holocaust Memorial Day for Roma and Sinti
O Lungo Drom (The Long Road) ~ An Oratorio on the Sinti and Roma People ~
1 August 2024 – Krakow Philharmonic Hall
International Conference
“My testimony is for young people”
Passing on Memory for the Future
of Holocaust Remembrance and Education
31st of July – 1st of August 2024
Opening event
31 July 2024 – Auditorium Maximum of Jagiellonian University, Kraków
Exhibition: Raymond Gurême – A path of memory and resistance
31 July – 1 August 2024 – Auditorium Maximum of Jagiellonian University, Kraków