by JAMES ROOSE-EVANS based on the book by JERZY PETERKIEWICZ with music specially composed and conducted by ANDRZEJ PANUFNIK
This is the strange, shocking and moving story of the heretical Mariavite sect which grew up in Poland early this century and which still numbers some 30,000 devoted believers. Were the divine revelations of Maria Koziowska, the foundress of the sect, mere hallucinations? Was her famous (or notorious) successor, the polygamous Archbishop Kowalski, a passionate visionary, or a charlatan? His experiments were certainly bold: the ' mystical marriages' between priests and nuns, and the birth of 'mystical children ' in the cloisters.
Musicians: JULIAN COWARD SUSAN MILAN (flutes)
JULIAN FARRELL. WILLIAM GREEN (clarinets) RICHARD ADDISON (bass clarinet) Directed by JOHN THEOCHARIS