News
Irish Premiere of Roman Statkowski's Opera, "Maria"
2011-10-11
The Irish premiere of Roman Statkowski’s opera "Maria" will be held October 22, 2011 during the 60th Wexford Opera Festival. This is a special event, because after the recent "discovery" and recording in a concert version of the work by Łukasz Borowicz, "Maria", at last, after many years will reappear on the stage. The work, directed by Michael Gielet, an artist of Polish descendancy, living permanently in London, will be led by Tomasz Tokarczyk, music director of Kraków Opera. The solo parts will be performed by Daria Masiero (Maria), Rafał Bartmiński (Wacław), Adam Kruszewski (Miecznik) and Krzysztof Szumański (Wojewoda).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, “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.” The opera will be performed four times during the festival in Wexford: 22, 28 and 31 October and 4 November 2011, and will be hosted on the stage of the Kraków Opera next season.
Information about the festival can be found at: http://wexfordopera.com/programme/
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