Polish tenor gets Vienna to stage his national opera
mainMessage from Piotr Beczala:
Great news! After many years of my efforts in promoting Polish music, I am happy to announce that the Theater An Der Wien will present Stanisław Moniuszko’s “Halka” in 2019! The performance will be conducted by Łukasz Borowicz, directed by Mariusz Treliński with the stage designed by Boris Kudlicka! Pictured below is us during one of the working meetings in Zurich.
I’m no expert but the list of names doesn’t correspond to the photograph, unless Borowicz has had a secks change.
The photo shows (from the left) Beczala, Trelinski, Mrs Beczala and Kudlicka. Apparently, Borowicz was busy elsewhere (holding the camera?).
It doesn’t actually say that Borowicz is in the picture. Not does it say that Piotr’s wife is not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Moniuszko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBIQePl1oNw
Yes-ssss! Long overdue. There are some beautiful Polish operas and the recent success of a production of “Krol Roger” at ROH shows that, despite the obvious language barrier, there’s an audience outside Poland.
Especially King Roger is a fascinating work, in spite of its continuous hysterical emotionalism, but it is a wonderful dreamlike experience, something like Salome but without the killing and the overall morbidity.
Polish music has been too lnag excluded from Western audiences. In my study years, in teh seventies, there simply was no information about Polish music except Chopin and he was considered French. Then came Witold Rowicky from Warschau with an equipe of Polish super singers, performing Szymanowsky’s Stabat Mater with the Rotterdam OPhil and the conservatory choir, so we students were baptized with the unknown. It was an unforgettable experience.
The fragments of Moniuszko’s “Halka” don’t sound very exciting, but sympathetic and very well made; he uses too often the obvious triads along the way which tames the energies.
PS Sorry for the typos but the cat is interfering all the time.