The semi-staged production was a joint project by St. Cecilia’s Conservatory and the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.
Directed by Poland’s Robert Cieśla and conducted by Lilianna Krych, the performance was sung in Italian, with Zuzanna Wrona in the part of the eponymous heroine, the peasant girl Halka, and Bartosz Lisik as Jontek, a young man in unrequited love with Halka.
Adrianna Siennicka, the director of the Polish Institute in Rome, which initiated contacts between the vocal departments of the two music institutions, has told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that more joint events are likely to be held in both Rome and Warsaw.
Moniuszko (1819-1872), known as the father of Polish national opera, was born in Ubiel near Minsk, present-day Belarus, into a patriotic family of Polish landowners.
He studied music in Warsaw, Minsk and Berlin. Following the successes of his first operas, he was engaged as a conductor at Warsaw’s Grand Theatre.
In addition to the operas Halka, The Haunted Manor, The Raftsman, The Countess, and Verbum Nobile, his output comprises several operettas, over 250 songs, mass cycles, cantatas, and chamber compositions.
(mk/gs)