The libretto of the opera "Beatrix Cenci" was based on Juliusz Słowacki's drama of the same title. Słowacki, on the other hand, refers almost directly to Shakespeare's plays. There are references to "Macbeth", "Hamlet", "Romeo and Juliet" and "Richard III". In all these dramas, the most important theme is the inevitability of death, the impossibility of avoiding a given fate. Beatrix dies at the hands of ruthless, patriarchal power, the victim of a massive, multiplied act of violence. The multiplied Shakespearean drama intensifies its tragedy. As if all fate was focused on one innocent being. As a daughter, she executes her father - the torturer, paradoxically taking on the role assigned to a man. She "sacrilegiously" administers justice and for this she suffers the plague of the most severe punishments from those who arrogated this right to themselves. Jerzy Nowosielski's painting "Beatrix Cenci" from 1950 describes this practice very eloquently. We see how heartless, imperturbable executioners are about to execute their sentence. What is striking here is their disturbing cleanliness and smoothness, we can almost guess there are white gloves on their hands.

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The characters who herald inexorable fate are the Three Furies, whose prototypes are Macbeth's Witches. They symbolize the order of eternity, they exist beyond time and space. They persist above tragic human fates. Their eternal presence and the values ​​of Nowosielski's painting are determinants for me in creating the visual setting for the concert performance of the opera "Beatrix Cenci" by Ludomir Różycki.