It will be the work’s first performance in the original language of the libretto in 120 years.
Based on the novel A Hut Behind the Village (Chata za wsią) by Polish writer Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Manru was composed on commission from the Dresden Opera. Its libretto, by Alfred Nossig, was written in German.
The opera had its world premiere in Dresden on May 29, 1901. The libretto was translated into Polish by Paderewski and Stanisław Rossowski for a performance in Lwów (now Lviv in Ukraine) on June 8, 1901.
The production in Halle, directed by Katharina Kastening, is a joint project by the Bühnen Halle and the Warsaw-based Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Five more performances are planned, on March 27, April 1 and 22, May 22 and June 30.
The opera exploits the frequent motif of a love potion to tell the story of a marriage doomed to end tragically.
The American premiere of Manru took place at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on February 14, 1902. The work remains to this day the only Polish opera produced at the Met.
(mk/gs)