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Irish Premiere of Roman Statkowski's Opera "Maria"
2011-10-24
The Irish premiere of Roman Statkowski’s opera "Maria" proved a great success during the 60th Opera Festival in Wexford. It was a special event, because after the recent "discovery" of the work by Łukasz Borowicz and his recording it in a concert version, finally "Maria" has returned to the stage after many years. The work, directed by Michael Gieleta, an artist of Polish descendancy, living permanently in London, was led by Tomasz Tokarczyk, music director of Kraków Opera. The solo parts were performed by Daria Masiero (Maria), Rafał Bartmiński (Wacław), Adam Kruszewski (Miecznik) and Krzysztof Szumański (Wojewoda). The work was received with immense enthusiasm and the audience particularly applauded the excellent Rafał Bartmiński. The staging of the opera was a huge surprise, moved to the realities of the times of martial law in Poland. The O'Reichy Theatre (771 seats), filled to the edges, rewarded the performers with thunderous applause.We owe the creation of "Maria" to a coincidence of lucky accidents. A year earlier, in 1903, the composer wrote the opera "Filenis" for which he received an award at an international competition in London. A moment later, a competition was announced in Warsaw, for which the composition of an opera based on Antoni Malczewski’s poetic novel, "Maria", was required. As a prize-winner, Statkowski proceeded to write another work, and, beating his younger colleagues, Henryk Melcer and Henryk Opieński, he received the first prize. „Maria” was performed two years later, 1 March 1906, on the stage of the Grand Theatre in Warsaw.
According to Józef Kański it was written under the clear influence of Statkowski’s beloved master, Piotr Tchaikovsky, shrouded however in an equally strong Polishness, and in some moments, saturated with "programmatic" Ukrainian elements, distinguished by being uncommonly melodic and full of dramatic nerve - and is certainly one of the best operas of the post-Moniuszko period.
During the festival in Wexford the opera will be presented three more times: 28 and 31 October and 4 November, 2011. Each performance will be preceded by a half-hour lecture about the work, which will be given by Brian Dickie, artistic director the Festival in the period 1967-1973, since 1999 director of the Chicago Opera Theater.
In Poland, "Maria" will pay a visit next artistic season to the stage of Kraków Opera. November 11, 2011 a recording of "Maria" from the Wexford Festival will be transmitted on Radio Two, but already on Friday evening, October 28, 2011 on the TOK FM radio station you can listen to an extensive report about the Festival.
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