"Fidelio" closes Solidarity of Arts festival in Gdańsk

The Solidarity of Arts festival, held at the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk is dedicated to promoting the idea of solidarity - in art, for art and through art. This year, Beethoven's opera "Fidelio" has been chosen for the grand finale of the festival, closing on the anniversary of the Gdańsk Accords of 1980 that created the first free labour union in the Eastern bloc. But this will not be a typical concert performance. The music is entwined with the memories from a Syrian jail of one of the musicians of the Expat Philharmonic Orchestra that is playing; and the testimony of a Tunisian poet from the early 20th century, held in a German POW camp for Moslems.

Elżbieta Krajewska has been talking to conductor Julien Salemkour, Gdańsk native baritone Stanisław Daniel Kotliński, and bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny who has come to Gdańsk specially to sing at the Festival, what solidarity means to them.