Piotr Beczala and Tomasz Konieczny, the two great Polish singers of the moment, are sponsoring today at the Royal Theater the premiere of a masterpiece of European romanticism, Halka by Stanislaw Moniuszko, which will be offered in concert version today and Saturday, November 11 , National Independence Day of Poland. Both singers already starred in it in its premiere in Vienna in 2019 alongside the American soprano Corinne Winters, who now returns to play the heroine of this opera, a Polish peasant girl pregnant by the local lord and who goes to the aristocrat's residence. the day of his engagement to another young woman. Jontek - played by Piotr Beczala - a young mountain man with whom he grew up and who is in love with Halka, will try to get her out of his head in this tragic story presided over by class conflict.
An opera written by Moniuszko (1819-72), considered the creator of Polish national opera, when Poland had ceased to exist and its lands had been divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria. Many Polish artists and intellectuals strove then, remembers Magdalena Majda, director of the Polish Institute of Culture in Spain, to maintain Polish culture, languages and traditions in the face of attempts at denationalization. In this context, Moniuszko rose thanks to Halka, premiered in 1858 and whose libretto is by Włodzimierz Wolski, as the musical hero—with Chopin's permission—of an oppressed land. Another of his operas, Majda recalled, The Haunted House, could be seen in Seville in September, and next year the Real will premiere The Passenger, by Mieczyslaw Weinberg. about the Holocaust.
Halka, recalls the artistic director of the Teatro Real, Joan Matabosch, is an immensely popular opera in Poland, with Moniuszko being a kind of Polish Verdi. But it is almost unknown outside. The conductor Łukasz Borowicz, in charge of the two performances, remembers that Polish opera had two fathers, Karol Kurpinski, "totally unknown outside and that he was very important because as an orchestral director he brought to Poland Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini, as well French music that introduced the country to an interest in opera, and then in the next generation Moniuszko studied in Berlin and returned with the dream of creating a national school combining the modern music he encountered in Berlin, such as Meyerberg, with Polish folklore."
And in Halka he proposes, he says, "an incredible mixture of romanticism, folklorism and national school in a work that tells of a class conflict that could exist in almost any European in the 19th century after the revolutions of 1848 against the nobles. In Poland the "Peasants were treated like slaves until 1864, when they obtained their freedom. The song produced a scandal at its premiere, the nobles wanted to hear love stories and not remember the class conflicts they had experienced a few years before."
"It is a difficult music to describe," he assures, "because in a certain sense it is romantic and on the other hand it is predictable, because we have this direct conflict and its emotions, as in Cavalleria rusticana. Some elements reflect Polish music from the beginning of the 19th century and others show the path to that of the 20th century, like that of Szymanowski. This work shows Polish tradition and folklore and the most beautiful notes of romantic bel canto in which the choir has a fantastic role, at times it is almost a choir concert." .
And he says he is happy to conduct the opera on Polish Independence Day. "Our country was erased from the map for 123 years, until November 11, 1918, and music played a great role in maintaining the patriotic feeling. Moniuszko was somehow able to put in his work all the elements that describe our soul national and some of the arias that Piotr Beczala sings in Halka are for many Poles like a national anthem"
Tenor Piotr Beczala remembers that after the long preparation for the staged premiere in Vienna in 2019 - where it was set in a contemporary hotel -, he has the opportunity to present it in Madrid on an important day. "For me the most important thing is to show this music to the world. I always bring Moniuszko's arias in my recitals. And I am very happy that Joan Matabosch liked this music and we can present it with all its quality. I really like Moniuszko's music. Moniuszko, she is very beautiful but also very strong. My role is special because in the initial version of Halka it was written for a baritone. Sometimes it is difficult, very low in some sections and then there are very challenging arias, but I enjoy the whole performance ".
The bass baritone Tomasz Konieczny, who plays the aristocrat - "as a bass baritone I am used to bad guy roles," he jokes - points out that the Polish repertoire is not well known in the world and he and Beczala are usually more busy with Italian repertoire. or German, and in that sense, he says, he is very happy to be able to show it. "Beczala usually does the Polish romantic repertoire and I do the modern one and we do everything we can, he points out. And in that sense the great tenor remembers that" it is a great process to present new music to the world. To bring Halka to Vienna it took seven years to convince many people to do this opera. And it is important that there are international stars in the performances like Corinne, who is American and she has to believe that this opera is good enough to study and present it. "I am happy to have started the process for Halka and when I retire I will enjoy opera in theaters around the world."
Corinne Winters sees similarities for her Halka with the roles she sings in Madama Butterfly or Rusalka, "roles that require strength but also fragility, and I adore music, those ditties that show heart, passion, love, and also dramatic moments, almost like Salomé, angry, screaming".
