Papers (in Polish, English summaries)
Moniuszko. Kompendium [The PWM Companion to Moniuszko], ed. Ryszard D. Golianek, Kraków 2020, PWM Edition, ISBN 978-83-224-5047-5, 2020
Analyzes Stanisław Moniuszko’s (1819-1872) six main operatic works (i.e.: „Halka”, „Flis”, „Hrabi... more Analyzes Stanisław Moniuszko’s (1819-1872) six main operatic works (i.e.: „Halka”, „Flis”, „Hrabina”, Verbum nobile”, „Straszny dwór”, „Paria”), its historical background and operatic style.
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Ferdynand Hoesick junior [Ferdynand Hoesick Jr.], ed. Małgorzata Woźna-Stankiewicz, Kraków: Musica Iagellonica, ISBN 978-83-7099-240-8, 2020
Describes Fredynand Hoesick’s Jr. relations with the family of Władysław and Wanda Żeleński, deta... more Describes Fredynand Hoesick’s Jr. relations with the family of Władysław and Wanda Żeleński, detailing the dates, facts and quoting a number of unknown handwritten documents. Referring to memories and unpublished correspondence, the following issues are presented:
1. The beginnings of Hoesick’s relations with Żeleński family and his visits in Żeleński residence in Kraków (called ‘Sebastianówka’) during subsequent years.
2. Hoesick’s friendship with Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer (1865-1940), an outstanding Polish decadent poet who was the nephew of Wanda Żeleńska née Grabowska (1841-1904).
3. The cooperation of Władysław Żeleński (1837-1921) and his wife with Hoesick’s Warsaw publishing house (owned by Hoesick Sr.).
4. Władysław Żeleński’s opinions about Hoesick’s Jr. piano performances and Hoesick’s and I.J. Paderewski’s judgments on Żeleński’s musical works.
5. Wanda Żeleńska’s personal memories and memorabilia referring to the figure of Konstancja Gładkowska (1810-1889), F. Chopin’s youthful love (connected with the Grabowski family in later years) included in F. Hoesick’s Jr. two Chopin monographs. A separate topic is Wanda’s helpfulness to Hoesick’s Jr. in his contacts with the Czartoryski family (in the matter, among other things, of Chopin’s portrait by Ary Scheffer).
6. The Wanda’s attempts to use the extensive Hoesick’s Jr. contacts in St. Petersburg to promote the most outstanding of her husband’s works, the opera „Goplana”.
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Muzyka: kwartalnik Instytutu Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2009
The four-act opera "Pierre de Médicis" by Prince Józef Poniatowski (1814–1873) was staged on 9 Ma... more The four-act opera "Pierre de Médicis" by Prince Józef Poniatowski (1814–1873) was staged on 9 March 1860 at Théâtre Impérial de l’Opéra. Press and archival sources are used to reconstruct the circumstances preceding and accompanying the premiere, and the stage life of that work.
The archival sources include the official correspondence by Achille Fould (1800–1867, the Ministre d’État et de la Maison de l’Empereur, to whom Poniatowski dedicated his opera), and by three successive directors of the Opéra: Léon Pillet (1803–1868), Alphonse Royer (1803–1875), and Emile Perrin (1814–1885). A brief sketch of the first version of the work entitled "Don Garcie" (1858), and the 1860 premiere are discussed, along with Poniatowski's earlier collaboration with Alexandre Dumas Père, who prepared the libretto of "Le Corsaire" (1846), Poniatowski's first, unfinished work intended for the Parisian Opéra, with reference to the relevant archival sources, such as a three-party contract signed in 1846 by Poniatowski, Dumas, and Pillet.
"Pierre de Médicis" was Poniatowski's greatest success as a composer in Paris: the work appeared on stage 47 times; moreover, it was also premiered in Lyon (1862), at Teatro Real in Madrid (1863), and at La Scala in Milan (1869). Matthias Brzoska (in his article about Poniatowski's French operatic works) even refers to the moderate praise given to Poniatowski's work in a musical feuilleton by Berlioz ("Journal des Débats", 20 March 1860). However, Berlioz's correspondence tells us that this praise was enforced and totally insincere. Poniatowski's friendship with Napoleon III and persons from the Emperor's closest circle was undoubtedly to his advantage (the large circle of his friends included such figures as Achille Fould and Count Félix-Marnès Bacciochi, the Surintendant Général des Théâtres de l'Empire). Poniatowski's success seems dubious when compared with the spectacular failure of Wagner's "Tannhäuser": it might suggest that Poniatowski, unlike Wagner, did not disregard the offer made to him by the chief of the claque, and ensured that the ballet scenes in his work were introduced "at the right moment", which avoided antagonizing members of the Jockey Club.
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Życie - twórczość - konteksty. Eseje o Stanisławie Moniuszce, ed. Magdalena Dziadek, Warszawa 2019 Narodowe Centrum Kultury, p. 171-191, ISBN 978-83-7982-377-2, 2019
Moniuszko's operatic style is commonly associated with the rhythms of Polish dances. However, not... more Moniuszko's operatic style is commonly associated with the rhythms of Polish dances. However, not only national, but also salon dances can be considered as one of the most important keys to his operas.
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Muzyka: kwartalnik Instytutu Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2013
For Stanisław Moniuszko, the repertoire of French music and operas was a significant point of ref... more For Stanisław Moniuszko, the repertoire of French music and operas was a significant point of reference and an important source of inspiration. yet most of the references to French works in the Polish composer’s output are no longer legible for modern audiences, because the circle of Parisian musicians esteemed by Moniuszko comprised composers whose popularity has not stood the test of time.
In the first part of the article, I present selected examples of allusions in Moniuszko output to works by French composers that were enthusiastically received at the time, but have since been forgotten, including the following:
– A musical reference to the ‘Marche de la caravane’ from Félicien David’s Ode-Symphonie "Le Désert", included by Moniuszko at the beginning of his concert overture "Bajka" ("Le Conte d’hiver");
– Two operas composed by Moniuszko incorporating Eugène Scribe’s libretto for the opera "Le Chalet" (originally written for the Parisian composer Adolphe Adam):
1. "Bettly" (1852), to an original French text,
2. the earlier ‘operetta’ "Die Schweizerhütte", to a German translation by Karl Blum, which has been ignored or underestimated by biographers.
"Die Schweizerhütte" offers a starting point for discussion of Moniuszko’s adoption of the style of the French opéra-comique as a noteworthy example of cultural transfer. The second part of my article contains remarks on Moniuszko’s two longer sojourns in Paris during the period of the French Second Empire (in 1858 and at the turn of 1861 and 1862).
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Muzyka: kwartalnik Instytutu Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2012
The denouement of Moniuszko’s opera Halka involves a well-known histrionic spectacle: Halka, aban... more The denouement of Moniuszko’s opera Halka involves a well-known histrionic spectacle: Halka, abandoned by her lover, climbs a rock and throws herself into a river. The majority of Polish operagoers will certainly always regard that sequence of events as an original invention of Moniuszko’s librettist. However, the heroine’s abandonment and her suicidal leap into the abyss is a characteristic recurrent theme in romantic librettos. David Charlton identified a connection between repeated narrative phenomena of this type and a ‘melodrama model’. The ‘melodrama model’, which originated in Ggeorg Benda’s duodrama "Ariadne auf Naxos" (Gotha 1775, Paris 1781), leads us – through Jean Paul Egide Martini’s "Sapho" (1794) – directly to Daniel François Esprit Auber’s "La Muette de Portici" (1828), an opera that Moniuszko considered a masterpiece. It is interesting to note that Charlton also draws our attention to the fact that the same narrative pattern was reflected in two late 18th-century paintings: Angelika Kauffmann’s "Die von Theseus verlassene Ariadne" (before 1782) and Jean-Joseph Taillasson’s "Sapho ne pouvant se faire aimer du jeune Phaon se précipite du rocher de Leucate dans la mer" (1791). In the closing part of the article, I show how Halka’s last desperate gestures were transferred from the stage and musical spaces to the opera iconography.
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Teatr operowy Stanisława Moniuszki. Rekonesanse, ed. Maciej Jabłoński i Elżbieta Nowicka, Poznań 2005 PTPN, p. 37–55, 2005
Stanisław Moniuszko completed only two serious operatic works: 'Halka' (1848/1858) and 'Paria' (1... more Stanisław Moniuszko completed only two serious operatic works: 'Halka' (1848/1858) and 'Paria' (1869). The libretto for 'Paria', by Jan Chęciński, is based on the French tragedy 'Le Paria' (1821) by Casimir Delavigne, but is significantly altered by Moniuszko who was inspired by Étienne de Jouy's libretto for 'La Vestale' (1807) by Gaspare Spontini.
It is often forgotten that Moniuszko was not only the composer of the 'Indian' opera but also the author of incidental music for Wacław Szymanowski's Polish adaptation of Delavigne's tragedy. A comparison of the only preserved MS of the latter (PL-Wtm MS R638) with the opera demonstrates that the Polish composer, as an admirer of the ode-symphony 'Le désert' by Félicien David, shaped the exotic flavor of his works in agreement with David's inventions and techniques, though these were outdated by the second half of the 19th c.
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Muzyka: kwartalnik Instytutu Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2017
The Warsaw period in the life and artistic career of the composer Władysław Żeleński (1837–1921),... more The Warsaw period in the life and artistic career of the composer Władysław Żeleński (1837–1921), spanning the decade between 1871 and 1881, proved decisive for the course of his private life, professional career and artistic biography. It was in Warsaw that he started a family, gained and ultimately consolidated his elevated position in Polish music circles, and matured as a composer. A detailed review of Żeleński’s activities during this period makes it possible not only to date a number of compositions accurately, but also to shed light on his ambiguous relations with Stanisław Moniuszko and expose bitter conflicts with the older generation of Warsaw musicians (including Józef Brzowski and Apolinary Kątski). Consequently, we can establish the real reasons behind Żeleński’s decision to leave his post at the Warsaw Conservatory [Instytut Muzyczny] and his later resignation as artistic director of the Warsaw Music Society [Warszawskie Towarzystwo Muzyczne]. The latter decision tipped the scales in favor of moving to Cracow, which the Żeleńskis did in early July 1881.
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O Słowackim: "Umysły ludzi różne" [About Słowacki: "Intentions of people are diverse"] (Warszawa : Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk , 2009) ISBN 83-89101-89-0 ; 978-83-89101-89-1 , 2009
Władysław Żeleński (1837–1921) has been often described in dictionaries as the most significant 1... more Władysław Żeleński (1837–1921) has been often described in dictionaries as the most significant 19th-century Polish opera composer after Moniuszko. In fact, he is one of the most neglected figures of Polish musical culture at the fin de siècle. It is odd that Żeleński’s operas are nearly unavailable today in full orchestral scores. The long absences of these works at leading Polish musical stages during the last decades were undoubtedly undeserved. Since their recordings are only to be found in the Polish Radio archives and have been never published on records or CDs, up to now Żeleński’s operatic output could not reach wider audiences. Goplana, the romantic opera in three acts (text by Ludomił German after Julius Słowacki’s tragedy "Balladyna"), has been considered by critics and musicologists as Żeleński’s better work. The composer started working on it in the middle of the 1880s, shortly after the premiere of his first opera "Konrad Wallenrod" (1885). Nevertheless, his work has not come into the final stage until 1892. Excluded from Polish presentations during the Internationale Musik und Theater Ausstellung in Vienna that took place that year, Żeleński has entered into contact with eminent Polish musicians then active in the Austrian capital, including the violinist Michael Drucker (1861–after 1903), and the world-famous soprano Lola Beeth (1864–1940). They helped him organize the concert in Vienna (on 26 February 1893), with "Goplana" ballet music on the program. From then on Żeleński started making numerous efforts to stage "Goplana" at Wiener Hofoper, and from 1896 at Národní Divadlo in Prague. Although the composer had never staged the opera abroad and could not realize his dream of international career, he managed to publish the full orchestral score at the Viennese music publishing house of Josef Eberle (1897), and the libretto was translated into German and Czech. The musical language of Goplana is more evocative than in other Żeleński’s operatic works. In fact, the composer, educated with Berthold Damcke (1812–1875) in Second Empire Paris, was a great admirer of Charles Gounod. In 1894 he even wrote an extensive article about the French master, calling Gounod "the first range talent and embodiment of national genius" and describing Gounodian style as an original ballad-like tune. The Gounodian model is demonstrated on several music examples in order to confirm the thesis that Żeleński made a wide use of this model and tried to merge the French opéra lyrique style with Polish operatic tradition.
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Muzyka: kwartalnik Instytutu Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2008
The life and works of Władysław Żeleński (1837–1921), regarded as one of the outstanding Polish o... more The life and works of Władysław Żeleński (1837–1921), regarded as one of the outstanding Polish opera composers active at the turn of the century, constitute one of the most neglected areas of research into Polish musical culture of that period. An urgent need for a new, exhaustive monograph about this composer is confirmed by the collections of MSS, previously insufficiently researched or totally unknown in the literature of the subject, which include correspondence sources and documents, such as Żeleński’s Catholic baptism certificate, with the names "Vladislaus Marianus Nicolaus”. The letters of Żeleński’s first wife, the writer Wanda Żeleńska née Grabowska (1841–1904), who actively promoted her husband’s works, should be further examined by musicologists. A critical edition and publication of Żeleński’s extant correspondence should be undertaken. Such an edition would need to be preceded by a thorough research not only in the Polish, but also European and U.S. libraries and archives. Żeleński’s letters are to be found in a variety of locations, such as the archives in Ukraine, Lithuania, Germany, Austria and the U.S. This material opens up new research perspectives. It provides the possibility of correcting and filling in the gaps in the chronology of the composer’s development, demonstrated on the example of his operatic works. It provides an opportunity for discovering new, unknown, or little known facts, for instance, the composer’s unsuccessful attempts to have the world premiere of his opera "Goplana" staged in Prague and in Vienna. The documentation should also allow one to capture Żeleński’s true creative temperament and psychological profile.
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Muzyka polska za granicą: "Twórcy - źródła - archiwa" [Polish music abroad: "Creators - sources - archives"], ed. Jolanta Guzy-Pasiak & Beata Boleslawska-Lewandowska, Warszawa 2017, Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, ISBN 978-83-65630-59-9, p. 65-92, 2017
The opera "Maria", ‘a lyrical drama’ in three acts by Roman Statkowski (1859–1925), which in 1904... more The opera "Maria", ‘a lyrical drama’ in three acts by Roman Statkowski (1859–1925), which in 1904 received a prize at the Konstanty Wołodkowicz opera contest, was premiered at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw [Teatr Wielki] on 11 March 1906. Before the Second World War, the performances were resumed twice (in 1919 and 1924).
Although the complete orchestral score of "Maria" did not survive the Second World War and shared the fate of the Library of Warsaw Theatres, which was burnt down by Germans, the work had a postwar premiere on a Wrocław stage [Opera Wrocławska] on 16 October 1965. it was possible thanks to a ‘reconstruction’ initiated by Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, based on unidentified and today probably non-existent material (most probably a copy of piano-vocal score, which Wiłkomirski restored to a full orchestral form). The original libretto was also modified: the text originally written by Statkowski and based on a scenario provided by organizers of the contest was profoundly re-edited by Tadeusz Zasadny, a writer from Wrocław.
When Statkowski’s work was brought back to life again in 2008 (on 21 September, it was performed on stage in Lutosławski's Hall in Warsaw [Studio im. W. Lutoslawskiego] under the conductor Lukasz Borowicz), the massive work contributed by the Wrocław reconstructionists was no longer mentioned. In the meantime, the publication of a recording of "Maria" on CD set its stage career in motion: the opera was presented on 22 October 2011 during the Wexford Opera Festival and on 25 September 2013 at the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk [Opera Bałtycka], while another premiere, at the Oldenburg Opera House, was scheduled for March 2018.
Unfortunately, all the performances to date, and even the Cd booklet, ignore very important information about the reconstruction and the huge contributions of Kazimierz Wiłkomirski and Tadeusz Zasadny (including their far-reaching interventions: the instrumentation of the whole opera and rewriting the libretto).
The "Maria" reconstructed after the Second World War contains a number of deformations and deviations from its original form, created by Roman Statkowski in the years 1903–1904. Unfortunately, for this reason it cannot be taken into account by future authors of monographs on Statkowski’s oeuvre. However, not only scholars, but also music lovers are entitled to know that the work they experience was recreated, which involved participation by several additional ‘co-authors’ whose names deserve to be mentioned.
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Rocznik Kaliski, 2016
[EN] The article broadens and complements the known biographical data about Roman Statkowski (185... more [EN] The article broadens and complements the known biographical data about Roman Statkowski (1859–1925), an outstanding Polish composer and teacher of composition born in Szczypiorno near Kalisz and educated in St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Based on, among others, record files and old newspaper resources, the article straightens a series of erroneous information repeated in dictionaries and encyclopedias. It is an attempt to establish a reliable chronology of the composer's biography and works. It presents several less known or completely unknown characters from the closest surroundings of Statkowski, including his father Julian Statkowski (1814–1874), participant in the November Uprising, official and pioneer of Polish cooperative movement, mother's relatives (Witanowski and Pietraszewski families) and father's cousins (Wincenty Statkowski ca. 1818-1864), composer's close friends as Lucjan Koll (1859 -1907) and Emil Młynarski (1870–1935) and representatives of St. Petersburg Polish diaspora: recipients and addressees of dedications of Statkowski's musical works (including Anatol Hinita-Piłsudski, a relative of Marshal Józef Piłsudski).
[PL] Artykuł poszerza i uzupełnia dotychczasową wiedzę na temat życia i twórczości Romana Statkowskiego (1859–1925), utalentowanego kompozytora i wybitnego muzycznego pedagoga urodzonego w Szczypiornie.
Na podstawie m.in. akt metrykalnych i źródeł prasowych prostuje szereg błędnych informacji powtarzających się w słownikach i encyklopediach. Jest próbą ustalenia wiarygodnej chronologii przebiegu biografii kompozytora i przybliżonego wydatowania jego utworów. Przedstawia sylwetki kilku mniej znanych lub całkowicie nieznanych postaci z najbliższego otoczenia Statkowskiego, m.in. jego ojca Juliana Statkowskiego (1814–1874), uczestnika powstania listopadowego, urzędnika i pioniera polskiej spółdzielczości, krewnych ze strony matki (rodziny Witanowskich i Pietraszewskich) i ze strony ojca (Wincenty Statkowski ok. 1818–1864), bliskich przyjaciół Lucjana Kolla (1859–1907) i Emila Młynarskiego (1870–1935) oraz przedstawicieli Polonii petersburskiej: adresatki i adresatów dedykacji utworów muzycznych (m.in. Anatola Hinita-Piłsudskiego).
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Muzyka: kwartalnik Instytutu Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2005
"Philaenis", an opera in a prologue and 2 acts was composed in 1897 by Roman Statkowski (1859–192... more "Philaenis", an opera in a prologue and 2 acts was composed in 1897 by Roman Statkowski (1859–1925), to a German language libretto by Hermann Erler (1844–1918). (Erler was the owner of a music publishing house which had published a number of Statkowski's earlier works.) The choice of a German text was not accidental; at the time the composer thought that his work would be staged in Dresden (this is attested to both by fragments of correspondence and news items in the press in 1898). By now we cannot ascertain what led the composer to being optimistic on that account, nor do we know how advanced were his negotiations with Saxony's foremost opera theatre at that time. However, it is a fact that these plans came to nothing, and the first Polish opera, performed at the Semperoper as late as 1901, was Paderewski's "Manru".
In spite of this, the composer did not give up his attempts to have the work staged. In letters from 1899 he was even considering the possibility of having its first performance in Russia, and in 1900 he presented the score to the management of Warsaw Theatres. Two years later a prominent Polish conductor, Emil Młynarski (1870–1935), became interested in this work. It was probably on his advice that in 1903 Statkowski had the libretto translated into English and sent the score of "Philaenis" to London, to be entered in a competition for composers organised by Charles Manners (1857–1935), the manager of Moody-Manners Opera Company (this company performed during
two consecutive seasons at Covent Garden). Although "Philaenis" won the first prize, the composer's representative in London, Count Aleksander Dienheim Szczawiński-Brochocki (1841–1907), turned out to be extremely irresponsible, to the extent that he irretrievably destroyed any chance of the opera being staged at Covent Garden (which, after all, was guaranteed by the very rules of the competition). The reason was a quite unnecessary conflict, which he entered into on his own initiative, with the competition's organiser (the matter may have involved having the Count's wife, an acclaimed singer Adelajda Bolska (1864–1930), included in the cast). In this way he wilfully squandered Statkowski's success. The favourable attitude of Młynarski caused the opera to be eventually staged on 14 September 1904 at Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, with the libretto translated into Polish by the composer, and under the more Polish-sounding title "Filenis" (the work was staged there again in 1925).
In 1944 the orchestral score of "Philaenis" shared the fate of the whole of the Warsaw Opera Library, burnt to the ground by the German Nazis (which is why its revival in Łódź in 1973 required a reconstruction of the instrumentation). For research purposes we thus used a manuscript of the vocal score of the competition version preserved in Vilnius, as well as the printed libretto and the vocal score (later version) published by Ries & Erler. The ancient Greek background of the libretto was treated by Erler in a highly cavalier manner, with no attempt at either historical or mythological accuracy. It is true that the plot might be regarded as a very free adaptation of the myth of Althea and Meleager, but the antiquity is only a 'mask' which covers typically modernist features: the antique props in "Philaenis" merely provide a conventional background in the form of a picturesque framework for the proper subject, the inner drama of the protagonists. As the significance of the historical and mythological elements is marginalised, so the focus moves to the evolving psychological profile of the heroine of the title. This corresponds to a more general process: the end of the nineteenth century brought with it the demise of the historical novel and historical painting on the one hand, and the ever widening influence of Parnassian and Symbolist aesthetics on the other; it was also a time when the dying genre of "panoramic" grand opéra was irrevocably giving way to new types of opera plots, much closer to the fin-de-siècle ideologies. In this respect the texture of the plot of "Philaenis" already carries the mark of the same Zeitgeist which was soon to find its most perfect embodiment in the operatic compositions of Richard Strauss. The music of the opera was at that time regarded as a kind of synthesis of the idiom of lyric opera (with its two national forms associated with the names of Massenet and Tchaikovsky) and the achievements of Wagner. Although the stylistic eclecticism sketched in this way inevitably gave the works somewhat academic aura (the critic Karol Stromenger summed it up with a highly suggestive phrase 'une belle partition'), it cannot be denied that Statkowski, when describing the „London" version of his work as „Musikdrama" on the title page, was turning his creative aspirations also in another direction. Both the analysis of the shape of musical narration, and the fact that Statkowski introduces into the score (although on a limited scale) repeated thematic material with clear symbolic connotations, lead one to this conclusion. Thus, although from the European perspective "Philaenis" certainly cannot be regarded as progressive, in the context of the history of Polish opera it should be regarded as a work directed towards the future and providing a foretaste of musical theatre of the first decades of the twentieth century – as a bridge between the legacy of Władysław Żeleński (1837–1921), and the musical theatre of Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937).
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Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny 2004 (3), p. 79-93, 2004
Polish opera composers of the second half of the 19th century experienced the characteristic crea... more Polish opera composers of the second half of the 19th century experienced the characteristic creative dualism. Their output features both:
1) "National" works addressed to the Polish audience, making references to national symbols and hermetic local cultural code,
2) Operas written in line with the principles of the European operatic models, representing so-called "cosmopolitan" tendencies.
This terminological distinction (certainly simplified and ideologically marked) has been "invented" and made popular by Polish press reviewers.
The second type of works seems to be the most interesting today. The "cosmopolitan" operas drew heavily on universal plot features, whereas its music aspired to one of the international opera idioms. Discussed here are the reception histories of two Polish fin-de-siècle 'music dramas' as they relate to operatic "cosmopolitanism": Noskowski’s "Livia Quintilla" and Statkowski’s "Philaenis".
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Muzyka: kwartalnik Instytutu Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2009
The two-act opera "Wyrok" [The death sentence] by Zygmunt Noskowski (1846–1909) is an adaptation ... more The two-act opera "Wyrok" [The death sentence] by Zygmunt Noskowski (1846–1909) is an adaptation of the one-act play "Ksenia" by Aureli Urbański (1844–1901), a writer with close connections to the literary and theatrical life of Lwów of that time. Noskowski’s opera was written during the years 1904 and 1905, and was premiered on 15 November 1906 at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw. Its action takes place in Greece (in Messenia) in 1827, during the uprising of the Greek klephts against the Turkish rule. In my article I try to confirm the hypothesis that the composers’ interest in verismo was accompanied by a change in approach to the literary layer of an operatic work. At the time of the premiere, well-known contemporary critics suggested that Noskowski may have set Urbański’s text to music almost directly, without introducing too many interventions of his own. Such comments incline us towards the hypothesis that Noskowski's opera may constitute a case of Literaturoper (the concept which acquired much significance in the operatic theater at the turn of the century). In spite of the adjustments made by the composer, the text contains whole scenes taken directly from Urbański’s play. The score clearly shows a striving for compactness and for conveying fully the primacy of the dramatic factor. In terms of the musical setting, in Noskowski on the whole breaks away from the traditional elements of operatic syntax, perceptibly tending towards recitative and arioso structures. The part of the chorus is limited to the initial scene of the first act and the two finales. Such 'traditional numbers' as arias, ensembles, choruses, play a marginal role, and the idea which holds the music together turns out to be the consistent use of four recurring motifs. Noskowski – as a child of the positivist era – found his natural ally in realism. However, his attitude to operatic verismo was critical and in the opera discussed he attempted to creatively develop this model. The significance of this compositional experiment should not be underestimated: in the context of the Polish heritage of the operatic fin-de-siècle this reference (perhaps intuitive) to the concept of Literaturoper was a noteworthy enterprise.
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Muzyka: kwartalnik Instytutu Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2006
Zygmunt Noskowski (1846–1909) wrote his first opera, "Livia Quintilla" (libretto by Ludomił Germa... more Zygmunt Noskowski (1846–1909) wrote his first opera, "Livia Quintilla" (libretto by Ludomił German), during the years 1890–1897. In spite of Noskowski's undoubted achievements and services to Polish musical culture, both as a composer and promoter of musical life in Warsaw, this work is usually ignored by studies devoted to the bistory of Polish music, as is his second opera, "Wyrok" ["The Judgment"]. The reason for this may be that both operas, in contrast to Noskowski's symphonies and cantatas, seem to undermine the dogma of 'nationalism in music', which for many years was axiomatic in analysing Polish music. (This is a concept which becomes increasingly difficult to apply, especially in the context of Polish operatic works of the second half of the nineteenth century.)
The article describes the work's origins and the circumstances accompanying its first performance in Lwów (15 February 1898), and the premieres in Kraków (11 May 1898) and in Warsaw (19 April 1902). The reconstruction is based on press reports of the time and on the composer's writings and unpublished letters to the librettist dating from 1896–1902, which provide an exceptionally vivid account of the events. Noskowski's ambition was to enter the European „opera market", and he was planning to negotiate performances of "Livia Quintilla" in Prague, Berlin, Budapest and Vienna as early as 1898. Still in 1902 he was negotiating this matter with Franz Naval (1865–1939), a tenor associated with the Viennese Hofoper. At that time, as he mentions in one of his letter, he sent the piano-vocal score of the opera, with a German translation of the text, to Gustav Mahler (and in fact the copy is conserved today in the Austrian National Library Music Collection). The full orchestrał score of "Livia Quintilla" most probably shared the fate of the whole Warsaw Opera Library, which was burnt down by the German Nazis in 1944.
The conclusions presented in the analytical part of this article thus had to be drawn on the basis of the manuscript and printed versions of the vocal score, and the libretto published in 1898 (as well as its two earlier manuscript copies). A comparison of Noskowski's views on the opera expressed as early as 1888 in an extensive manifesto article entitled "Ideał opery" [The Ideal Opera], with the aesthetics implicit in the score of "Livia Quintilla" highlights numerous divergences. In 1888 Noskowski declared, among other things, that for him the 'ideal opera' was the „symphonic opera – a perfect synthesis of the genres of symphony and cantata". At the same time he criticised Wagner, in particular for introducing leitmotifs; he also condemned similar experiments with recurring motifs then being undertaken by Massenet. On the other hand, he did not hesitate to resort to extensive use of recurring motif materiał linked to the main characters in the score of "Livia Quintilla", which in other respects bears all the hallmarks of academic conservatism.
It would clearly be difficult to defend the claim that the presence of recurring motifs enables us today to see in "Livia Quintilla" the realisation of that 'ideal of a symphonic opera' envisaged in 1888. However, the conservative character of the score does not negate the fact that, in the context of the history of Polish operatic output, "Livia Quintilla" is of significance. It is probably the first Polish opera which makes use of a network of recurring motifs so consistently and so widely. For this reason, in spite of the formal conservatism and the „classical profile" characteristic of Noskowski's creative stance in general, it is important to appreciate his forgotten experiments in the opera genre. They culminated in 1906 in his opera "Wyrok" – a work intuitively tending towards the aesthetics of realism and the idea of Literaturoper.
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Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny: "Polskość, europejskość, uniwersalizm muzyki", 2005
Analyzes Adam Münchheimer's (Minchejmer, 1830-1904) opera "Il Vendicatore" (The avenger), on the ... more Analyzes Adam Münchheimer's (Minchejmer, 1830-1904) opera "Il Vendicatore" (The avenger), on the Italian libretto by Władysław Miller (1863-1929). Münchheimer's opera is considered as a Polish example of verismo opera. However, some features of grand opéra can also be found in the musical arrangement of the work.
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Europejski repertuar muzyczny na ziemiach Polski, ed. Elżbieta Wojnowska, Warszawa 2003 BN, p. 101–112, 2003
Discusses a number of Polish operatic works written and performed after 1891 that prove some veri... more Discusses a number of Polish operatic works written and performed after 1891 that prove some veristic influences. Details are presented of the related Polish discussion about the verismo model that emerged after the Warsaw premiere of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana (on 20 October 1891), a discussion in which Bolesław Prus (1847–1912), an eminent Polish novelist, participated. The operas of such composers as Władysław Żeleński (Janek), Adam Münchheimer (Mściciel), Ignacy J. Paderewski (Manru) and Zygmunt Noskowski (Wyrok) are presented here as examples of works inspired by the aesthetics of operatic verismo.
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Muzyka wobec przemian kultury i cywilizacji, ed. Ludwik Bielawski, J. Katarzyna Dadak-Kozicka i Agnieszka Leszczyńska, Warszawa 2001 IS PAN, p. 151–160, 2001
Polish nineteenth-century operas are generally underestimated. The examination of these operatic ... more Polish nineteenth-century operas are generally underestimated. The examination of these operatic works requires of us today to take into consideration the criteria that differs from the point of view we inherited from the era of triumphant Wagnerism. An examination of composers’ comments proves that most of them were, in fact, professed anti-Wagnerians. It concerns Stanisław Duniecki (1839–1870), Władysław Żeleński (1837–1921), and Zygmunt Noskowski (1846–1909). They were diligent readers of anti-wagnerian writings by Otto Gumprecht, Paul Lindau, Ferdinand Praeger, Max Nordau, and first and foremost by Eduard Hanslick.
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Teorie opery [Theories of opera], ed. Maciej Jabłoński, (=Poznańskie Studia Operowe / Poznań Studies in Opera, vol. 4), Poznań 2004, PTPN, p. 109-135, ISBN : 837063401X, 2004
Discusses three Polish operatic works imitating the grand opéra model, all of them staged in the ... more Discusses three Polish operatic works imitating the grand opéra model, all of them staged in the second half of the 19th c. and composed by Warsaw music directors: "Monbar, czyli Flibustierowie" by Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński (1863), and "Otton Łucznik" and "Stradiota" by Adam Münchheimer (1864, 1876). Although "Monbar" has some grand opéra musical traits, its libretto is shaped by the old rescue opera model. On the other hand, neither of the two Münchheimer’s operas, although both music-stylistically Meyerbeerian, features grand opéra plots.
Another examined problem is that all these works were rejected both by Polish public and press criticism. This was due to their "non-national" (i.e. "cosmopolitan") character, which was found alien by critics sharing ethnocentric ways of thinking. It is significant that Münchheimer’s subsequent opera "Mazapa" (1900), which contains three national dances (polonaise, krakowiak, and mazurka) was popular and maintained in the Polish national operatic repertoire until 1939, whereas "Otton" and "Stradiota" (and Dobrzyński’s "Monbar" as well) were forgotten soon after their premieres.
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1. The beginnings of Hoesick’s relations with Żeleński family and his visits in Żeleński residence in Kraków (called ‘Sebastianówka’) during subsequent years.
2. Hoesick’s friendship with Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer (1865-1940), an outstanding Polish decadent poet who was the nephew of Wanda Żeleńska née Grabowska (1841-1904).
3. The cooperation of Władysław Żeleński (1837-1921) and his wife with Hoesick’s Warsaw publishing house (owned by Hoesick Sr.).
4. Władysław Żeleński’s opinions about Hoesick’s Jr. piano performances and Hoesick’s and I.J. Paderewski’s judgments on Żeleński’s musical works.
5. Wanda Żeleńska’s personal memories and memorabilia referring to the figure of Konstancja Gładkowska (1810-1889), F. Chopin’s youthful love (connected with the Grabowski family in later years) included in F. Hoesick’s Jr. two Chopin monographs. A separate topic is Wanda’s helpfulness to Hoesick’s Jr. in his contacts with the Czartoryski family (in the matter, among other things, of Chopin’s portrait by Ary Scheffer).
6. The Wanda’s attempts to use the extensive Hoesick’s Jr. contacts in St. Petersburg to promote the most outstanding of her husband’s works, the opera „Goplana”.
The archival sources include the official correspondence by Achille Fould (1800–1867, the Ministre d’État et de la Maison de l’Empereur, to whom Poniatowski dedicated his opera), and by three successive directors of the Opéra: Léon Pillet (1803–1868), Alphonse Royer (1803–1875), and Emile Perrin (1814–1885). A brief sketch of the first version of the work entitled "Don Garcie" (1858), and the 1860 premiere are discussed, along with Poniatowski's earlier collaboration with Alexandre Dumas Père, who prepared the libretto of "Le Corsaire" (1846), Poniatowski's first, unfinished work intended for the Parisian Opéra, with reference to the relevant archival sources, such as a three-party contract signed in 1846 by Poniatowski, Dumas, and Pillet.
"Pierre de Médicis" was Poniatowski's greatest success as a composer in Paris: the work appeared on stage 47 times; moreover, it was also premiered in Lyon (1862), at Teatro Real in Madrid (1863), and at La Scala in Milan (1869). Matthias Brzoska (in his article about Poniatowski's French operatic works) even refers to the moderate praise given to Poniatowski's work in a musical feuilleton by Berlioz ("Journal des Débats", 20 March 1860). However, Berlioz's correspondence tells us that this praise was enforced and totally insincere. Poniatowski's friendship with Napoleon III and persons from the Emperor's closest circle was undoubtedly to his advantage (the large circle of his friends included such figures as Achille Fould and Count Félix-Marnès Bacciochi, the Surintendant Général des Théâtres de l'Empire). Poniatowski's success seems dubious when compared with the spectacular failure of Wagner's "Tannhäuser": it might suggest that Poniatowski, unlike Wagner, did not disregard the offer made to him by the chief of the claque, and ensured that the ballet scenes in his work were introduced "at the right moment", which avoided antagonizing members of the Jockey Club.
In the first part of the article, I present selected examples of allusions in Moniuszko output to works by French composers that were enthusiastically received at the time, but have since been forgotten, including the following:
– A musical reference to the ‘Marche de la caravane’ from Félicien David’s Ode-Symphonie "Le Désert", included by Moniuszko at the beginning of his concert overture "Bajka" ("Le Conte d’hiver");
– Two operas composed by Moniuszko incorporating Eugène Scribe’s libretto for the opera "Le Chalet" (originally written for the Parisian composer Adolphe Adam):
1. "Bettly" (1852), to an original French text,
2. the earlier ‘operetta’ "Die Schweizerhütte", to a German translation by Karl Blum, which has been ignored or underestimated by biographers.
"Die Schweizerhütte" offers a starting point for discussion of Moniuszko’s adoption of the style of the French opéra-comique as a noteworthy example of cultural transfer. The second part of my article contains remarks on Moniuszko’s two longer sojourns in Paris during the period of the French Second Empire (in 1858 and at the turn of 1861 and 1862).
It is often forgotten that Moniuszko was not only the composer of the 'Indian' opera but also the author of incidental music for Wacław Szymanowski's Polish adaptation of Delavigne's tragedy. A comparison of the only preserved MS of the latter (PL-Wtm MS R638) with the opera demonstrates that the Polish composer, as an admirer of the ode-symphony 'Le désert' by Félicien David, shaped the exotic flavor of his works in agreement with David's inventions and techniques, though these were outdated by the second half of the 19th c.
Although the complete orchestral score of "Maria" did not survive the Second World War and shared the fate of the Library of Warsaw Theatres, which was burnt down by Germans, the work had a postwar premiere on a Wrocław stage [Opera Wrocławska] on 16 October 1965. it was possible thanks to a ‘reconstruction’ initiated by Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, based on unidentified and today probably non-existent material (most probably a copy of piano-vocal score, which Wiłkomirski restored to a full orchestral form). The original libretto was also modified: the text originally written by Statkowski and based on a scenario provided by organizers of the contest was profoundly re-edited by Tadeusz Zasadny, a writer from Wrocław.
When Statkowski’s work was brought back to life again in 2008 (on 21 September, it was performed on stage in Lutosławski's Hall in Warsaw [Studio im. W. Lutoslawskiego] under the conductor Lukasz Borowicz), the massive work contributed by the Wrocław reconstructionists was no longer mentioned. In the meantime, the publication of a recording of "Maria" on CD set its stage career in motion: the opera was presented on 22 October 2011 during the Wexford Opera Festival and on 25 September 2013 at the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk [Opera Bałtycka], while another premiere, at the Oldenburg Opera House, was scheduled for March 2018.
Unfortunately, all the performances to date, and even the Cd booklet, ignore very important information about the reconstruction and the huge contributions of Kazimierz Wiłkomirski and Tadeusz Zasadny (including their far-reaching interventions: the instrumentation of the whole opera and rewriting the libretto).
The "Maria" reconstructed after the Second World War contains a number of deformations and deviations from its original form, created by Roman Statkowski in the years 1903–1904. Unfortunately, for this reason it cannot be taken into account by future authors of monographs on Statkowski’s oeuvre. However, not only scholars, but also music lovers are entitled to know that the work they experience was recreated, which involved participation by several additional ‘co-authors’ whose names deserve to be mentioned.
Based on, among others, record files and old newspaper resources, the article straightens a series of erroneous information repeated in dictionaries and encyclopedias. It is an attempt to establish a reliable chronology of the composer's biography and works. It presents several less known or completely unknown characters from the closest surroundings of Statkowski, including his father Julian Statkowski (1814–1874), participant in the November Uprising, official and pioneer of Polish cooperative movement, mother's relatives (Witanowski and Pietraszewski families) and father's cousins (Wincenty Statkowski ca. 1818-1864), composer's close friends as Lucjan Koll (1859 -1907) and Emil Młynarski (1870–1935) and representatives of St. Petersburg Polish diaspora: recipients and addressees of dedications of Statkowski's musical works (including Anatol Hinita-Piłsudski, a relative of Marshal Józef Piłsudski).
[PL] Artykuł poszerza i uzupełnia dotychczasową wiedzę na temat życia i twórczości Romana Statkowskiego (1859–1925), utalentowanego kompozytora i wybitnego muzycznego pedagoga urodzonego w Szczypiornie.
Na podstawie m.in. akt metrykalnych i źródeł prasowych prostuje szereg błędnych informacji powtarzających się w słownikach i encyklopediach. Jest próbą ustalenia wiarygodnej chronologii przebiegu biografii kompozytora i przybliżonego wydatowania jego utworów. Przedstawia sylwetki kilku mniej znanych lub całkowicie nieznanych postaci z najbliższego otoczenia Statkowskiego, m.in. jego ojca Juliana Statkowskiego (1814–1874), uczestnika powstania listopadowego, urzędnika i pioniera polskiej spółdzielczości, krewnych ze strony matki (rodziny Witanowskich i Pietraszewskich) i ze strony ojca (Wincenty Statkowski ok. 1818–1864), bliskich przyjaciół Lucjana Kolla (1859–1907) i Emila Młynarskiego (1870–1935) oraz przedstawicieli Polonii petersburskiej: adresatki i adresatów dedykacji utworów muzycznych (m.in. Anatola Hinita-Piłsudskiego).
In spite of this, the composer did not give up his attempts to have the work staged. In letters from 1899 he was even considering the possibility of having its first performance in Russia, and in 1900 he presented the score to the management of Warsaw Theatres. Two years later a prominent Polish conductor, Emil Młynarski (1870–1935), became interested in this work. It was probably on his advice that in 1903 Statkowski had the libretto translated into English and sent the score of "Philaenis" to London, to be entered in a competition for composers organised by Charles Manners (1857–1935), the manager of Moody-Manners Opera Company (this company performed during
two consecutive seasons at Covent Garden). Although "Philaenis" won the first prize, the composer's representative in London, Count Aleksander Dienheim Szczawiński-Brochocki (1841–1907), turned out to be extremely irresponsible, to the extent that he irretrievably destroyed any chance of the opera being staged at Covent Garden (which, after all, was guaranteed by the very rules of the competition). The reason was a quite unnecessary conflict, which he entered into on his own initiative, with the competition's organiser (the matter may have involved having the Count's wife, an acclaimed singer Adelajda Bolska (1864–1930), included in the cast). In this way he wilfully squandered Statkowski's success. The favourable attitude of Młynarski caused the opera to be eventually staged on 14 September 1904 at Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, with the libretto translated into Polish by the composer, and under the more Polish-sounding title "Filenis" (the work was staged there again in 1925).
In 1944 the orchestral score of "Philaenis" shared the fate of the whole of the Warsaw Opera Library, burnt to the ground by the German Nazis (which is why its revival in Łódź in 1973 required a reconstruction of the instrumentation). For research purposes we thus used a manuscript of the vocal score of the competition version preserved in Vilnius, as well as the printed libretto and the vocal score (later version) published by Ries & Erler. The ancient Greek background of the libretto was treated by Erler in a highly cavalier manner, with no attempt at either historical or mythological accuracy. It is true that the plot might be regarded as a very free adaptation of the myth of Althea and Meleager, but the antiquity is only a 'mask' which covers typically modernist features: the antique props in "Philaenis" merely provide a conventional background in the form of a picturesque framework for the proper subject, the inner drama of the protagonists. As the significance of the historical and mythological elements is marginalised, so the focus moves to the evolving psychological profile of the heroine of the title. This corresponds to a more general process: the end of the nineteenth century brought with it the demise of the historical novel and historical painting on the one hand, and the ever widening influence of Parnassian and Symbolist aesthetics on the other; it was also a time when the dying genre of "panoramic" grand opéra was irrevocably giving way to new types of opera plots, much closer to the fin-de-siècle ideologies. In this respect the texture of the plot of "Philaenis" already carries the mark of the same Zeitgeist which was soon to find its most perfect embodiment in the operatic compositions of Richard Strauss. The music of the opera was at that time regarded as a kind of synthesis of the idiom of lyric opera (with its two national forms associated with the names of Massenet and Tchaikovsky) and the achievements of Wagner. Although the stylistic eclecticism sketched in this way inevitably gave the works somewhat academic aura (the critic Karol Stromenger summed it up with a highly suggestive phrase 'une belle partition'), it cannot be denied that Statkowski, when describing the „London" version of his work as „Musikdrama" on the title page, was turning his creative aspirations also in another direction. Both the analysis of the shape of musical narration, and the fact that Statkowski introduces into the score (although on a limited scale) repeated thematic material with clear symbolic connotations, lead one to this conclusion. Thus, although from the European perspective "Philaenis" certainly cannot be regarded as progressive, in the context of the history of Polish opera it should be regarded as a work directed towards the future and providing a foretaste of musical theatre of the first decades of the twentieth century – as a bridge between the legacy of Władysław Żeleński (1837–1921), and the musical theatre of Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937).
1) "National" works addressed to the Polish audience, making references to national symbols and hermetic local cultural code,
2) Operas written in line with the principles of the European operatic models, representing so-called "cosmopolitan" tendencies.
This terminological distinction (certainly simplified and ideologically marked) has been "invented" and made popular by Polish press reviewers.
The second type of works seems to be the most interesting today. The "cosmopolitan" operas drew heavily on universal plot features, whereas its music aspired to one of the international opera idioms. Discussed here are the reception histories of two Polish fin-de-siècle 'music dramas' as they relate to operatic "cosmopolitanism": Noskowski’s "Livia Quintilla" and Statkowski’s "Philaenis".
The article describes the work's origins and the circumstances accompanying its first performance in Lwów (15 February 1898), and the premieres in Kraków (11 May 1898) and in Warsaw (19 April 1902). The reconstruction is based on press reports of the time and on the composer's writings and unpublished letters to the librettist dating from 1896–1902, which provide an exceptionally vivid account of the events. Noskowski's ambition was to enter the European „opera market", and he was planning to negotiate performances of "Livia Quintilla" in Prague, Berlin, Budapest and Vienna as early as 1898. Still in 1902 he was negotiating this matter with Franz Naval (1865–1939), a tenor associated with the Viennese Hofoper. At that time, as he mentions in one of his letter, he sent the piano-vocal score of the opera, with a German translation of the text, to Gustav Mahler (and in fact the copy is conserved today in the Austrian National Library Music Collection). The full orchestrał score of "Livia Quintilla" most probably shared the fate of the whole Warsaw Opera Library, which was burnt down by the German Nazis in 1944.
The conclusions presented in the analytical part of this article thus had to be drawn on the basis of the manuscript and printed versions of the vocal score, and the libretto published in 1898 (as well as its two earlier manuscript copies). A comparison of Noskowski's views on the opera expressed as early as 1888 in an extensive manifesto article entitled "Ideał opery" [The Ideal Opera], with the aesthetics implicit in the score of "Livia Quintilla" highlights numerous divergences. In 1888 Noskowski declared, among other things, that for him the 'ideal opera' was the „symphonic opera – a perfect synthesis of the genres of symphony and cantata". At the same time he criticised Wagner, in particular for introducing leitmotifs; he also condemned similar experiments with recurring motifs then being undertaken by Massenet. On the other hand, he did not hesitate to resort to extensive use of recurring motif materiał linked to the main characters in the score of "Livia Quintilla", which in other respects bears all the hallmarks of academic conservatism.
It would clearly be difficult to defend the claim that the presence of recurring motifs enables us today to see in "Livia Quintilla" the realisation of that 'ideal of a symphonic opera' envisaged in 1888. However, the conservative character of the score does not negate the fact that, in the context of the history of Polish operatic output, "Livia Quintilla" is of significance. It is probably the first Polish opera which makes use of a network of recurring motifs so consistently and so widely. For this reason, in spite of the formal conservatism and the „classical profile" characteristic of Noskowski's creative stance in general, it is important to appreciate his forgotten experiments in the opera genre. They culminated in 1906 in his opera "Wyrok" – a work intuitively tending towards the aesthetics of realism and the idea of Literaturoper.
Another examined problem is that all these works were rejected both by Polish public and press criticism. This was due to their "non-national" (i.e. "cosmopolitan") character, which was found alien by critics sharing ethnocentric ways of thinking. It is significant that Münchheimer’s subsequent opera "Mazapa" (1900), which contains three national dances (polonaise, krakowiak, and mazurka) was popular and maintained in the Polish national operatic repertoire until 1939, whereas "Otton" and "Stradiota" (and Dobrzyński’s "Monbar" as well) were forgotten soon after their premieres.
1. The beginnings of Hoesick’s relations with Żeleński family and his visits in Żeleński residence in Kraków (called ‘Sebastianówka’) during subsequent years.
2. Hoesick’s friendship with Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer (1865-1940), an outstanding Polish decadent poet who was the nephew of Wanda Żeleńska née Grabowska (1841-1904).
3. The cooperation of Władysław Żeleński (1837-1921) and his wife with Hoesick’s Warsaw publishing house (owned by Hoesick Sr.).
4. Władysław Żeleński’s opinions about Hoesick’s Jr. piano performances and Hoesick’s and I.J. Paderewski’s judgments on Żeleński’s musical works.
5. Wanda Żeleńska’s personal memories and memorabilia referring to the figure of Konstancja Gładkowska (1810-1889), F. Chopin’s youthful love (connected with the Grabowski family in later years) included in F. Hoesick’s Jr. two Chopin monographs. A separate topic is Wanda’s helpfulness to Hoesick’s Jr. in his contacts with the Czartoryski family (in the matter, among other things, of Chopin’s portrait by Ary Scheffer).
6. The Wanda’s attempts to use the extensive Hoesick’s Jr. contacts in St. Petersburg to promote the most outstanding of her husband’s works, the opera „Goplana”.
The archival sources include the official correspondence by Achille Fould (1800–1867, the Ministre d’État et de la Maison de l’Empereur, to whom Poniatowski dedicated his opera), and by three successive directors of the Opéra: Léon Pillet (1803–1868), Alphonse Royer (1803–1875), and Emile Perrin (1814–1885). A brief sketch of the first version of the work entitled "Don Garcie" (1858), and the 1860 premiere are discussed, along with Poniatowski's earlier collaboration with Alexandre Dumas Père, who prepared the libretto of "Le Corsaire" (1846), Poniatowski's first, unfinished work intended for the Parisian Opéra, with reference to the relevant archival sources, such as a three-party contract signed in 1846 by Poniatowski, Dumas, and Pillet.
"Pierre de Médicis" was Poniatowski's greatest success as a composer in Paris: the work appeared on stage 47 times; moreover, it was also premiered in Lyon (1862), at Teatro Real in Madrid (1863), and at La Scala in Milan (1869). Matthias Brzoska (in his article about Poniatowski's French operatic works) even refers to the moderate praise given to Poniatowski's work in a musical feuilleton by Berlioz ("Journal des Débats", 20 March 1860). However, Berlioz's correspondence tells us that this praise was enforced and totally insincere. Poniatowski's friendship with Napoleon III and persons from the Emperor's closest circle was undoubtedly to his advantage (the large circle of his friends included such figures as Achille Fould and Count Félix-Marnès Bacciochi, the Surintendant Général des Théâtres de l'Empire). Poniatowski's success seems dubious when compared with the spectacular failure of Wagner's "Tannhäuser": it might suggest that Poniatowski, unlike Wagner, did not disregard the offer made to him by the chief of the claque, and ensured that the ballet scenes in his work were introduced "at the right moment", which avoided antagonizing members of the Jockey Club.
In the first part of the article, I present selected examples of allusions in Moniuszko output to works by French composers that were enthusiastically received at the time, but have since been forgotten, including the following:
– A musical reference to the ‘Marche de la caravane’ from Félicien David’s Ode-Symphonie "Le Désert", included by Moniuszko at the beginning of his concert overture "Bajka" ("Le Conte d’hiver");
– Two operas composed by Moniuszko incorporating Eugène Scribe’s libretto for the opera "Le Chalet" (originally written for the Parisian composer Adolphe Adam):
1. "Bettly" (1852), to an original French text,
2. the earlier ‘operetta’ "Die Schweizerhütte", to a German translation by Karl Blum, which has been ignored or underestimated by biographers.
"Die Schweizerhütte" offers a starting point for discussion of Moniuszko’s adoption of the style of the French opéra-comique as a noteworthy example of cultural transfer. The second part of my article contains remarks on Moniuszko’s two longer sojourns in Paris during the period of the French Second Empire (in 1858 and at the turn of 1861 and 1862).
It is often forgotten that Moniuszko was not only the composer of the 'Indian' opera but also the author of incidental music for Wacław Szymanowski's Polish adaptation of Delavigne's tragedy. A comparison of the only preserved MS of the latter (PL-Wtm MS R638) with the opera demonstrates that the Polish composer, as an admirer of the ode-symphony 'Le désert' by Félicien David, shaped the exotic flavor of his works in agreement with David's inventions and techniques, though these were outdated by the second half of the 19th c.
Although the complete orchestral score of "Maria" did not survive the Second World War and shared the fate of the Library of Warsaw Theatres, which was burnt down by Germans, the work had a postwar premiere on a Wrocław stage [Opera Wrocławska] on 16 October 1965. it was possible thanks to a ‘reconstruction’ initiated by Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, based on unidentified and today probably non-existent material (most probably a copy of piano-vocal score, which Wiłkomirski restored to a full orchestral form). The original libretto was also modified: the text originally written by Statkowski and based on a scenario provided by organizers of the contest was profoundly re-edited by Tadeusz Zasadny, a writer from Wrocław.
When Statkowski’s work was brought back to life again in 2008 (on 21 September, it was performed on stage in Lutosławski's Hall in Warsaw [Studio im. W. Lutoslawskiego] under the conductor Lukasz Borowicz), the massive work contributed by the Wrocław reconstructionists was no longer mentioned. In the meantime, the publication of a recording of "Maria" on CD set its stage career in motion: the opera was presented on 22 October 2011 during the Wexford Opera Festival and on 25 September 2013 at the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk [Opera Bałtycka], while another premiere, at the Oldenburg Opera House, was scheduled for March 2018.
Unfortunately, all the performances to date, and even the Cd booklet, ignore very important information about the reconstruction and the huge contributions of Kazimierz Wiłkomirski and Tadeusz Zasadny (including their far-reaching interventions: the instrumentation of the whole opera and rewriting the libretto).
The "Maria" reconstructed after the Second World War contains a number of deformations and deviations from its original form, created by Roman Statkowski in the years 1903–1904. Unfortunately, for this reason it cannot be taken into account by future authors of monographs on Statkowski’s oeuvre. However, not only scholars, but also music lovers are entitled to know that the work they experience was recreated, which involved participation by several additional ‘co-authors’ whose names deserve to be mentioned.
Based on, among others, record files and old newspaper resources, the article straightens a series of erroneous information repeated in dictionaries and encyclopedias. It is an attempt to establish a reliable chronology of the composer's biography and works. It presents several less known or completely unknown characters from the closest surroundings of Statkowski, including his father Julian Statkowski (1814–1874), participant in the November Uprising, official and pioneer of Polish cooperative movement, mother's relatives (Witanowski and Pietraszewski families) and father's cousins (Wincenty Statkowski ca. 1818-1864), composer's close friends as Lucjan Koll (1859 -1907) and Emil Młynarski (1870–1935) and representatives of St. Petersburg Polish diaspora: recipients and addressees of dedications of Statkowski's musical works (including Anatol Hinita-Piłsudski, a relative of Marshal Józef Piłsudski).
[PL] Artykuł poszerza i uzupełnia dotychczasową wiedzę na temat życia i twórczości Romana Statkowskiego (1859–1925), utalentowanego kompozytora i wybitnego muzycznego pedagoga urodzonego w Szczypiornie.
Na podstawie m.in. akt metrykalnych i źródeł prasowych prostuje szereg błędnych informacji powtarzających się w słownikach i encyklopediach. Jest próbą ustalenia wiarygodnej chronologii przebiegu biografii kompozytora i przybliżonego wydatowania jego utworów. Przedstawia sylwetki kilku mniej znanych lub całkowicie nieznanych postaci z najbliższego otoczenia Statkowskiego, m.in. jego ojca Juliana Statkowskiego (1814–1874), uczestnika powstania listopadowego, urzędnika i pioniera polskiej spółdzielczości, krewnych ze strony matki (rodziny Witanowskich i Pietraszewskich) i ze strony ojca (Wincenty Statkowski ok. 1818–1864), bliskich przyjaciół Lucjana Kolla (1859–1907) i Emila Młynarskiego (1870–1935) oraz przedstawicieli Polonii petersburskiej: adresatki i adresatów dedykacji utworów muzycznych (m.in. Anatola Hinita-Piłsudskiego).
In spite of this, the composer did not give up his attempts to have the work staged. In letters from 1899 he was even considering the possibility of having its first performance in Russia, and in 1900 he presented the score to the management of Warsaw Theatres. Two years later a prominent Polish conductor, Emil Młynarski (1870–1935), became interested in this work. It was probably on his advice that in 1903 Statkowski had the libretto translated into English and sent the score of "Philaenis" to London, to be entered in a competition for composers organised by Charles Manners (1857–1935), the manager of Moody-Manners Opera Company (this company performed during
two consecutive seasons at Covent Garden). Although "Philaenis" won the first prize, the composer's representative in London, Count Aleksander Dienheim Szczawiński-Brochocki (1841–1907), turned out to be extremely irresponsible, to the extent that he irretrievably destroyed any chance of the opera being staged at Covent Garden (which, after all, was guaranteed by the very rules of the competition). The reason was a quite unnecessary conflict, which he entered into on his own initiative, with the competition's organiser (the matter may have involved having the Count's wife, an acclaimed singer Adelajda Bolska (1864–1930), included in the cast). In this way he wilfully squandered Statkowski's success. The favourable attitude of Młynarski caused the opera to be eventually staged on 14 September 1904 at Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, with the libretto translated into Polish by the composer, and under the more Polish-sounding title "Filenis" (the work was staged there again in 1925).
In 1944 the orchestral score of "Philaenis" shared the fate of the whole of the Warsaw Opera Library, burnt to the ground by the German Nazis (which is why its revival in Łódź in 1973 required a reconstruction of the instrumentation). For research purposes we thus used a manuscript of the vocal score of the competition version preserved in Vilnius, as well as the printed libretto and the vocal score (later version) published by Ries & Erler. The ancient Greek background of the libretto was treated by Erler in a highly cavalier manner, with no attempt at either historical or mythological accuracy. It is true that the plot might be regarded as a very free adaptation of the myth of Althea and Meleager, but the antiquity is only a 'mask' which covers typically modernist features: the antique props in "Philaenis" merely provide a conventional background in the form of a picturesque framework for the proper subject, the inner drama of the protagonists. As the significance of the historical and mythological elements is marginalised, so the focus moves to the evolving psychological profile of the heroine of the title. This corresponds to a more general process: the end of the nineteenth century brought with it the demise of the historical novel and historical painting on the one hand, and the ever widening influence of Parnassian and Symbolist aesthetics on the other; it was also a time when the dying genre of "panoramic" grand opéra was irrevocably giving way to new types of opera plots, much closer to the fin-de-siècle ideologies. In this respect the texture of the plot of "Philaenis" already carries the mark of the same Zeitgeist which was soon to find its most perfect embodiment in the operatic compositions of Richard Strauss. The music of the opera was at that time regarded as a kind of synthesis of the idiom of lyric opera (with its two national forms associated with the names of Massenet and Tchaikovsky) and the achievements of Wagner. Although the stylistic eclecticism sketched in this way inevitably gave the works somewhat academic aura (the critic Karol Stromenger summed it up with a highly suggestive phrase 'une belle partition'), it cannot be denied that Statkowski, when describing the „London" version of his work as „Musikdrama" on the title page, was turning his creative aspirations also in another direction. Both the analysis of the shape of musical narration, and the fact that Statkowski introduces into the score (although on a limited scale) repeated thematic material with clear symbolic connotations, lead one to this conclusion. Thus, although from the European perspective "Philaenis" certainly cannot be regarded as progressive, in the context of the history of Polish opera it should be regarded as a work directed towards the future and providing a foretaste of musical theatre of the first decades of the twentieth century – as a bridge between the legacy of Władysław Żeleński (1837–1921), and the musical theatre of Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937).
1) "National" works addressed to the Polish audience, making references to national symbols and hermetic local cultural code,
2) Operas written in line with the principles of the European operatic models, representing so-called "cosmopolitan" tendencies.
This terminological distinction (certainly simplified and ideologically marked) has been "invented" and made popular by Polish press reviewers.
The second type of works seems to be the most interesting today. The "cosmopolitan" operas drew heavily on universal plot features, whereas its music aspired to one of the international opera idioms. Discussed here are the reception histories of two Polish fin-de-siècle 'music dramas' as they relate to operatic "cosmopolitanism": Noskowski’s "Livia Quintilla" and Statkowski’s "Philaenis".
The article describes the work's origins and the circumstances accompanying its first performance in Lwów (15 February 1898), and the premieres in Kraków (11 May 1898) and in Warsaw (19 April 1902). The reconstruction is based on press reports of the time and on the composer's writings and unpublished letters to the librettist dating from 1896–1902, which provide an exceptionally vivid account of the events. Noskowski's ambition was to enter the European „opera market", and he was planning to negotiate performances of "Livia Quintilla" in Prague, Berlin, Budapest and Vienna as early as 1898. Still in 1902 he was negotiating this matter with Franz Naval (1865–1939), a tenor associated with the Viennese Hofoper. At that time, as he mentions in one of his letter, he sent the piano-vocal score of the opera, with a German translation of the text, to Gustav Mahler (and in fact the copy is conserved today in the Austrian National Library Music Collection). The full orchestrał score of "Livia Quintilla" most probably shared the fate of the whole Warsaw Opera Library, which was burnt down by the German Nazis in 1944.
The conclusions presented in the analytical part of this article thus had to be drawn on the basis of the manuscript and printed versions of the vocal score, and the libretto published in 1898 (as well as its two earlier manuscript copies). A comparison of Noskowski's views on the opera expressed as early as 1888 in an extensive manifesto article entitled "Ideał opery" [The Ideal Opera], with the aesthetics implicit in the score of "Livia Quintilla" highlights numerous divergences. In 1888 Noskowski declared, among other things, that for him the 'ideal opera' was the „symphonic opera – a perfect synthesis of the genres of symphony and cantata". At the same time he criticised Wagner, in particular for introducing leitmotifs; he also condemned similar experiments with recurring motifs then being undertaken by Massenet. On the other hand, he did not hesitate to resort to extensive use of recurring motif materiał linked to the main characters in the score of "Livia Quintilla", which in other respects bears all the hallmarks of academic conservatism.
It would clearly be difficult to defend the claim that the presence of recurring motifs enables us today to see in "Livia Quintilla" the realisation of that 'ideal of a symphonic opera' envisaged in 1888. However, the conservative character of the score does not negate the fact that, in the context of the history of Polish operatic output, "Livia Quintilla" is of significance. It is probably the first Polish opera which makes use of a network of recurring motifs so consistently and so widely. For this reason, in spite of the formal conservatism and the „classical profile" characteristic of Noskowski's creative stance in general, it is important to appreciate his forgotten experiments in the opera genre. They culminated in 1906 in his opera "Wyrok" – a work intuitively tending towards the aesthetics of realism and the idea of Literaturoper.
Another examined problem is that all these works were rejected both by Polish public and press criticism. This was due to their "non-national" (i.e. "cosmopolitan") character, which was found alien by critics sharing ethnocentric ways of thinking. It is significant that Münchheimer’s subsequent opera "Mazapa" (1900), which contains three national dances (polonaise, krakowiak, and mazurka) was popular and maintained in the Polish national operatic repertoire until 1939, whereas "Otton" and "Stradiota" (and Dobrzyński’s "Monbar" as well) were forgotten soon after their premieres.
Dobrzyński finished Monbar in 1838 but it was not performed until 1863. Some excerpts were presented in Poland (Warsaw 1838–1839; Poznań 1845) and in Germany (Berlin 1845, 1847; Leipzig 1845, Dresden 1846).
William Smialek (1991, p. 81) claimed that the true historical predecessor of Dobrzyński’s operatic hero was Henry Morgan (ca. 1635–1688), a famous Welsh pirate. However, in an opera libretto, a given historical figure becomes a victim of a number of narrative conventions. That leads to some visible artistic deformations and infidelities to relevant historical sources.
Dobrzyński's opera libretto shares the narrative syntax with such genres as the Gothic novel, tyrant rescue operas (a term suggested by David Charlton 1992, pp. 181–183), and early examples of the popular theatrical genre of melodrama. Following Vladimir Propp’s narrative theory it would be right to say that in all these cases (literary work, opera, or spoken drama) we are always dealing with the same narrative sequence. Thus, according to Propp's character typology, Monbar could be simply recognized as “the villain” who struggles against the noble hero.
The article describes the work's origins and the circumstances accompanying its first performance in Lwów (15 February 1898), and the premieres in Kraków (11 May 1898) and in Warsaw (19 April 1902). The reconstruction is based on press reports of the time and on the composer's writings and unpublished letters to the librettist dating from 1896–1902, which provide an exceptionally vivid account of the events. Noskowski's ambition was to enter the European „opera market", and he was planning to negotiate performances of "Livia Quintilla" in Prague, Berlin, Budapest and Vienna as early as 1898. Still in 1902 he was negotiating this matter with Franz Naval (1865–1939), a tenor associated with the Viennese Hofoper. At that time, as he mentions in one of his letter, he sent the piano-vocal score of the opera, with a German translation of the text, to Gustav Mahler (and in fact the copy is conserved today in the Austrian National Library Music Collection). The full orchestrał score of "Livia Quintilla" most probably shared the fate of the whole Warsaw Opera Library, which was burnt down by the German Nazis in 1944.
The conclusions presented in the analytical part of this article thus bad to be drawn on the basis of the manuscript and printed versions of the vocal score, and the libretto published in 1898 (as well as its two earlier manuscript copies). A comparison of Noskowski's views on the opera expressed as early as 1888 in an extensive manifesto article entitled "Ideał opery" [The Ideal Opera], with the aesthetics implicit in the score of "Livia Quintilla" highlights numerous divergences. In 1888 Noskowski declared, among other things, that for him the 'ideal opera' was the „symphonic opera – a perfect synthesis of the genres of symphony and cantata". At the same time he criticised Wagner, in particular for introducing leitmotifs; he also condemned similar experiments with recurring motifs then being undertaken by Massenet. On the other hand, he did not hesitate to resort to extensive use of recurring motif materiał linked to the main characters in the score of "Livia Quintilla", which in other respects bears all the hallmarks of academic conservatism.
It would clearly be difficult to defend the claim that the presence of recurring motifs enables us today to see in "Livia Quintilla" the realisation of that 'ideal of a symphonic opera' envisaged in 1888. However, the conservative character of the score does not negate the fact that, in the context of the history of Polish operatic output, "Livia Quintilla" is of significance. It is probably the first Polish opera which makes use of a network of recurring motifs so consistently and so widely. For this reason, in spite of the formal conservatism and the „classical profile" characteristic of Noskowski's creative stance in general, it is important to appreciate his forgotten experiments in the opera genre. They culminated in 1906 in his opera "Wyrok" – a work intuitively tending towards the aesthetics of realism and the idea of Literaturoper.
The edition is based on the unique autograph of the orchestral score (PL-Wn Mus. 91/1, olim akc. 6313) and the first printed edition of the libretto. The volume is preceded with comprehensive scholarly introduction and contains extensive critical commentary.
The largest number of letters in the collection were written in 1903. This year brought a breakthrough in Statkowski’s life. Following a sharp conflict with his employer Ludwik Grossman, the composer lost his post at Herman & Grossman. As a result, he found himself in dire straits and suffered a nervous breakdown. At this difficult moment of his life, Statkowski was given a helping hand by Emil Młynarski, who played a significant role in patching up the conflict. Młynarski, to whom many of Statkowski’s letters were addressed, provided the composer with lodging at Młynarski’s family manor in Iłgów (now Ilguva in Lithuania). It was there that Statkowski received good news from UK. His opera "Philaenis", whose libretto had been translated into English by Percy Edward Pinkerton (1855-1946), received an award in the Moody-Manners Opera Company competition. Not being able to collect the award in person, the composer chose Count Aleksander Dienheim Brochocki-Szczawiński (the husband of Adelajda Bolska, a then-famous Polish singer), who was residing in London at the time, to act as a proxy for him in this matter. Statkowski’s correspondence with Brochocki reveals, however, that the count did more harm than good to the composer’s career: his pointless arguments with the organizers of the competition completely ruined Statkowski’s London success and, as a result, the plans for a performance of "Philaenis" at Covent Garden petered out. The West-European newspapers and musical periodicals acclaimed Collin MacAlpin as the winner, without mentioning Statkowski at all.
Having been motivated to work by Młynarski, Statkowski soon composed his second opera, "Maria", in Iłgów. The opera received the prize in the Konstanty Wołodkowicz composition contest in Warsaw in 1904. In the meantime, Statkowski moved to Warsaw, where his dream – a stage performance of "Philaenis" finally came true. On 14 October 1904, the opera entered the repertoire of the Grand Theatre (with a libretto translated by the composer into Polish under the polonized title "Filenis"). Although part of the contemporary press subjected the opera to devastating criticism, the work was well received by the artistic circles, as testified in the hitherto unknown letter from Ludomir Różycki quoted in the introduction. While struggling with the difficulties connected with introducing his operas to the repertoire of the Grand Theatre, Statkowski at the same time resumed his career in the Warsaw musical milieu after a few years’ absence and started his teaching activity.
Soon after Młynarski had become the director of the Warsaw Instytut Muzyczny in 1 September 1904, the institution employed Statkowski as a teacher. In the years 1904 and 1905, Statkowski lent his support to Młynarski, who after assuming the position of the head of the Instytut Muzyczny had come into conflict with Aleksander Rajchman, the director of the Warsaw Philharmonic. In 1906, Statkowski celebrated the premiere of his award-winning opera "Maria". The correspondence shows that this period was the heyday of Statkowski's artistic career. For Statkowski, opera was the preferred field of artistic activity. His lifelong dream was to immerse himself in opera writing, a dream mentioned in a letter written in the final days of December 1912 in the wake of seeing two Polish premieres: "Meduza" by Ludomir Różycki and "Megae" by Adam Wieniawski. Unfortunately, “Maria” was to remain the last opera in his oeuvre.
After Młynarski’s resignation from the position of the director of the Warsaw Conservatory (Instytut Muzyczny) in 1907 and his emigration to England and Scotland, the issue of Statkowski’s opera works emerged only once in their correspondence in 1909, during the preparation of the piano score of "Philaenis" for publication by the Berlin musical publisher Ries & Erler. Młynarski’s efforts to promote Polish music in Great Britain are an interesting and still little-known subject. An event of huge importance was the concert of Polish music in the London Queens Hall, performed on 19 June 1913 (as the first in a cycle of three concerts of Slavonic music), which included also Statkowski’s overture to his opera "Maria". The significance of the correspondence published in the collection is manifold: the letters enable scholars to establish the precise dates of events important for Roman Statkowski’s life and work; they capture the composer’s psychological characteristics and personality type, the details of his social and professional life, general views on music as well as his political views; the letters offer insights into the matters that occupied Polish musical circles and the Polish intelligentsia at the time; and they containt remarks and comments pertaining to the contemporaneous political and social reality.
„Stanisław Moniuszko and World Culture:
New Perspectives and Interpretations”
Gdańsk, Academy of Music, 2019, September 28
It has been seven years since I informed the community of musicologists about my discovery of „Die Schweizerhütte” [The Swiss Cabin], the unknown German-language opera by Moniuszko. However, the work is still hiding many intriguing, unanswered questions. The first opening night of that ‘komische Oper’ which took place on 16 November 2018 in Warsaw Chamber Opera, was an unprecedented event (*). It was a surprising historical date: after nearly two centuries it closed a series of the Moniuszko world premieres initiated in 1839.
All these facts and events should provoke every specialist on Polish opera studies to revisit former opinions on beginnings and further development of Moniuszko’s operatic style. In my paper, I was trying to present a deep and detailed analysis of that work. It is time to open the scientific debate on Moniuszko's first operatic works pointing at new questions, hypotheses, and research perspectives.
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(*) The work was orchestrated from the manuscript piano-vocal score by Maciej Prochaska. The world premiere performance was directed and staged by Roberto Skolmowski, with soloists (Joanna Moskowicz as Mary, Bartosz Nowak as Michel and Szymon Kobylinski as Max), the MACV ancient instruments ensemble (under the baton of maestro Stanisław Rybarczyk) and men’s choir of Warsaw Chamber Opera (directed by Krzysztof Kusiel-Moroz).
-Die Schweizerhütte [The Swiss Cabin], 'komische Oper' in German,
-5 vaudeville works: 1) Nocleg w Apeninach [Overnight in the Apennines], 2) Ideał, czyli Nowa Preciosa [The Ideal, or New Preciosa], 3) Ostatnia loteria warszawska (Loteria) [The Last Warsaw Lottery (Lottery)], 4) Karmaniol, albo Francuzi lubią żartować [Carmagnole, or Frenchmen like joking], 5) Nowy Don Kiszot, czyli Sto szaleństw [New Don Quixote or One hundred madness],
-Twardowski, the first 'opera seria' (unfortunately, not preserved today).
In recent years, efforts have been made to prepare contemporary performances of these forgotten works. I discuss a number of difficulties and unexpected problems that these ambitious theatrical projects have brought with them.