Poland to celebrate composer Moniuszko next year
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
22.12.2018 11:00
A string of events will be held in Poland throughout next year to celebrate 19th-century composer Stanisław Moniuszko, who is hailed as the father of Polish national opera.
![Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872). Image: Adolphe Lafosse [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://external.polskieradio.pl/files/2a331fc3-a65f-40a7-9c02-398acc1198ff.file "Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872). Image: Adolphe Lafosse [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons")
Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872). Image: Adolphe Lafosse [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The upper house of the country’s parliament, the Senate, this week unanimously adopted a resolution to declare 2019 the Year of Stanisław Moniuszko.
Next year will mark the bicentenary of the composer’s birth.
Conservative senator Aleksander Szwed has said that Moniuszko, who died in 1872, contributed enormously to promoting Polish culture and music at a time when the nation was under foreign rule.
Moniuszko was born on May 5, 1819, in Ubiel near Minsk, present-day Belarus, and lived for some time in Vilnius, in what is now Lithuania, before moving to Warsaw.
As well as composing operas, he wrote chamber compositions, religious songs and patriotic music reflecting the history of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
He died of a heart attack on June 4, 1872. He was buried at Warsaw’s Powązki Cemetery.
A performance of a concert version of the Polish composer’s flagship opera Halka last week launched observances of the Year of Moniuszko in Vilnius, Lithuania.
In addition to Halka, Moniuszko’s output includes the operas The Haunted Manor and The Countess.
The bicentenary of Moniuszko’s birth in 2019 has been included on a list of UNESCO-sponsored anniversaries as a result of a joint initiative by Poland, Lithuania and Belarus.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR