Opera: Moniuszko’s 'The Haunted Manor' opens in Warsaw
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
31.12.2018 08:00
A new production of "The Haunted Manor" by Stanisław Moniuszko, the father of Polish national opera, premiered in Warsaw on Sunday.
Image: operakrolewska.pl
The staging, directed and designed by Ryszard Peryt, with Grzegorz Nowak conducting, was the culmination of yearlong celebrations of the centenary of Polish independence.
The event at Warsaw's Polish Royal Opera venue was also a prelude to the Year of Moniuszko, a string of celebrations planned for 2019 to mark the bicentenary of the composer’s birth.
The Haunted Manor has been described by music critics as a hidden treasure of Polish opera, with fine melodies, colourful instrumentation, wonderful group scenes and magnificent choruses and dances.
The plot of the opera centres around two brothers who try to avoid the marriage machinations of their aunt, only to find the women they love and want to marry in a supposedly haunted house.
The Haunted Manor originally premiered in Warsaw on September 28, 1865, but was banned after two more performances by a tsarist censor because of its Polish patriotic sentiments at a time when the nation was under foreign rule.
In addition to The Haunted Manor, Moniuszko (1819-1872) composed the operas Halka, The Countess, Verbum Nobile, The Raftsman, and Paria. His output also includes several operettas, more than 250 songs, and many religious works and chamber compositions.
(mk/gs)