On the 203rd anniversary of Stanisław Moniuszko’s birth, the artists of the Polish Royal Opera invite you to a concert featuring the most beautiful vocal pieces by this outstanding composer. The dramatic works of the leading representative of the Polish national opera abound in poignant arias full of lyricism. Some of them have become a permanent fixture in the concert repertoire, such as the famous aria by Skołuba Ten zegar stary from the opera The Haunted Manor. During today’s event, we will also hear fragments of such works as Hrabina (The Countess), Verbum Nobile or the cantata Nijoła.
However, Moniuszko became famous not only as the composer of works intended for professional singers. His goal was also to create a Polish repertoire for amateur music-making at home to poems selected “from those of our best poets”. He published such songs in subsequent volumes of the Home Songbook, the first of which was published in Vilnius in 1843. Six collections were published during Moniuszko’s lifetime, six more were published after the artist’s death – a total of 267 songs. It was this work that Aleksander Poliński probably had in mind when he wrote that Moniuszko was a “modest village lyre” who “spoke only Polish most beautifully”. After all, this composer was able to notice the beauty of folk simplicity and the natural melody enchanted in the poetic text.
PROGRAM
Złota rybka text Jan Zachariasiewicz
Dumka (Przychodź miły, dzień już biały) text Jan Czeczot
Groźna dziewczyna text author unknown
Pieśń wieczorna text Władysław Syrokomla
Dalibógże text Józef Massalski
Polna różyczka text Józef Grajnert
Znasz-li ten kraj text Adam Mickiewicz
Stary Kapral text Pierre-Jean de Béranger, transl. Stanisław Syrokomla
Swaty (W listeczki malina) text Edmund Wasilewski
Do pączka text Szymon Konopacki
Pieśń Nai text Józef Korzeniowski
Kwiatek (Gdzieś w ustroni) text Antoni Kolankowski
Wiośnianka text Johann Wolfgang Goethe, transl. T. Matuszewski
Triolet (Komu ślubny splatasz wieniec) text Tomasz Zan
O Matko Moja text Jan Prusinowski
Pomnę ojciec waści gadał – song (Chorąży) from the opera Hrabina
Biegnie słuchać w lasy, w knieje – dumka (Jadwiga) from the opera Straszny dwór
Szemrze strumyk pod jaworem – piosnka (Bronia) from Act II of the opera Hrabina
Ten zegar stary – aria (Skołuba) from the opera Straszny Dwór
Stacho odjeżdża… Jak tu ująć żal na wodze – recitative and aria (Zuzia) from the opera Verbum nobile
Wkrótce z ziemi będę wzięta – song (Nijoła) from the cantata Nijoła
PERFORMERS
OLGA PASIECZNIK SOPRANO
MONIKA LEDZION-PORCZYŃSKA MEZZOSOPRANO
WOJTEK GIERLACH BASS
KRZYSZTOF TRZASKOWSKI GRAND PIANO
