The Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real will be conducted by Poland’s Łukasz Borowicz, and the cast includes leading Polish opera singers, with tenor Piotr Beczała as Jontek and baritone Tomasz Konieczny as Janusz.
American soprano Corinne Winters sings the part of the eponymous heroine, the peasant girl Halka.
The Teatro Real says on its website that Halka “is considered a national treasure, with its sung melodies rooted in the Polish tradition.”
It also stresses “the quality of its dramatic and musical language, indispensable characteristics to successfully describe the universal theme—a mother’s rejection of her illegitimate children.”
According to the Teatro Real, “Halka occupies a seminal place in its country … With the touching image of her fragile persona by the librettist and composer, this is an essential work of Central European Romanticism."
The performance will be repeated on November 11.
Moniuszko, known as the father of Polish national opera, was born in Ubiel near Minsk, present-day Belarus, in 1819.
He came from 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. He died in 1872.
In addition to the operas Halka, The Haunted Manor, The Raftsman, The Countess, and Verbum Nobile, his output comprises several operettas, more than 250 songs, mass cycles, cantatas, and chamber compositions.
(mk/gs)