Stanisław Moniuszko (pronounced as /pl/; May 5, 1819 – June 4, 1872) was a Polish composer, conductor and teacher. He wrote many popular art songs and operas, and his music is filled with patriotic folk themes of the peoples of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (mainly Poles, Lithuanians and Belarusians).[1] He is generally referred to as "the father of Polish national opera".[2] Since the 1990s Stanisław Moniuszko is being recognized in Belarus as an important figure to Belarusian culture as well.[3]
Moniuszko was born into a noble landowning family in Ubiel,[4] Minsk Governorate (Russian Empire, now Belarus). His first piano teacher was his mother, Elżbieta (Elizabeth) Madżarska. He later continued his musical education in Warsaw and Minsk,[5] and studied under Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen in Berlin.[6] In 1858 he was appointed conductor at the Warsaw Opera. He also served as a professor at the Warsaw Conservatory.[6] He died in Warsaw in 1872 and was buried at the Powązki Cemetery.
See also: List of compositions by Stanisław Moniuszko.
Moniuszko composed more than 300 individual songs, primarily to texts of Polish poets,[7] and around two dozen operas.[5] His series of twelve song books[8] is notable and contains songs to the words of Adam Mickiewicz, Antoni Edward Odyniec, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Stefan Witwicki, Antoni Malczewski, and Wincenty Pol.
Moniuszko noted that his songs, which were published under the collective title Śpiewnik Domowy (Domestic Songs), had a national character. Their 'Polishness' is found in his use of and reference to traditional Polish dance rhythms like Polonaise, Mazurka, Kujawiak, and Krakowiak and the propagation of texts written by Polish national poets.[4] The songs were often performed by the 19th-century Polish choirs in Austria, Germany, and Russia,[8] and became a point of reference for other Polish composers. Moniuszko's opera style bears similarities to that of Daniel Auber and Gioachino Rossini, but with stronger emphasis on chorus and melodies inspired by Polish dances.[9] Lithuanians stress, that Stanisław Moniuszko was eagerly using Lithuanian motifs – e.g. his cantatas "Milda", "Nijolė", based on Lithuanian mythology, were issued in Vilnius.[10]
Halka is an opera to a libretto written by Włodzimierz Wolski, a young Warsaw poet with radical social views. After being staged in Warsaw in 1858, it became the most widely known Polish opera[5] and is part of the canon of Polish national operas.
An English version of Straszny dwór (The Haunted Manor, or The Haunted Castle[11]) was created and premiered by the student operatic society at Bristol University in 1970; this version has been performed since, specifically in 2001 by Opera South, which company also presented the world premiere of a specially created new English version of Verbum Nobile in 2002.
In 2009, Pocket Opera, of San Francisco, CA, USA, premiered Artistic Director Donald Pippin's English language translation of The Haunted Manor; and in 2010, Pippin's translation of Halka.
Moniuszko's opera Flis (The Raftsman) was performed and recorded in the Grand Theatre of Polish National Opera at the 2019 Chopin and his Europe International Music Festival, marking the 200th anniversary of Moniuszko's birth.[12]
Paria was performed at Poznań Opera in June 2019, directed by Graham Vick and conducted by Gabriel Chmura.
Moniuszko's operas are regularly performed at the Belarusian National Opera.