Moniuszko’s ‘Halka’, sung in Italian, released on CD
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
19.02.2019 07:55
The National Chopin Institute has released a CD featuring a live recording of Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko’s opera ‘Halka’.
Image: geralt/pixabay/CC0 Creative Commons
The recording was made during the ‘Chopin and his Europe Festival’ in Warsaw in August 2018 by the highly-acclaimed Italian period instruments ensemble Europa Galante under Fabio Biondi, with Italian soprano Tina Gorina appearing in the title role.
The remaining principal roles are sung by the Brazilian tenor Matheus Pompeu (Jontek) and Polish singers Robert Gierlach (Janusz), Rafał Siwek (Esquire) and Monika Ledzion-Porczyńska (Zofia).
The opera is sung in Italian, in a translation by Moniuszko’s friend, baritone Giuseppe Achille Bonoldi, who sang the part of Jontek in the premiere of the first, two-act version of Halka in Vilnius on January 1, 1848.
A four-act version of the work was premiered in Warsaw ten years later.
Halka, which is considered one of Moniuszko’s greatest operas, focuses on the tragic love of the eponymous character, the highlander girl Halka, for the nobleman Janusz, who abandons her to marry a woman of his own rank.
This year marks the bicentenary of Moniuszko’s birth. A gala event in tribute to Moniuszko is to be held at Warsaw’s National Opera on May 5, the exact anniversary of the composer’s birth.
(mk/pk)