The first premiere of the 2018/2019 season of the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera will be held on October 12, 2018. Ignacy Jan Paderewski's Manru, the only Polish opera staged at the Metropolitan Opera in New York over 100 years ago, returns with a new staging of director Marek Weiss.
It was not ambition, but financial trouble that brought Paderewski to the shores of America in 1891. The new continent hailed him as a wizard of the keyboard. He himself hoped at the time that the keyboard wouldn’t be the end of it and that the world would grow to appreciate him also as a composer. The draft of his first opera, based on Kraszewski’s novel The Cottage Outside the Village [Chata za wsią], was ready. The libretto was penned by the journalist and sculptor Alfred Nossig, while the composer continued to rework subsequent versions of the piece in his spare time between concerts. It took several years. In the meantime he got married, became a father, was widowed, remarried and lost his son. The handicapped boy died in 1901 – the same year that Manru premiered in Dresden. Next it opened in Lviv a few days later, and in the States in February 1902, making history as the first Polish opera ever to be staged at the Metropolitan Opera. After a brief triumph it became forgotten for many years. What will the director Marek Weiss find in this touching tale of unhappy love played out against the background of a class society – especially in our world of awakening nationalisms and growing intolerance? Without a doubt the lovers’ rapture, gypsy marches and the frenetic element of Paderewski’s only opera will impress with their superb sound world, at the same time surprising us with the piece’s timeless relevance.
The spectacle is co-produced with the Poznań Opera House. The soloists (Peter Berger, Ewa Tracz, Mikołaj Zalasiński, Anna Lubańska, Monika Ledzion-Porczyńska, Łukasz Goliński i Dariusz Machej), the Choir and Orchestra of Teatr Wielki – National Opera will be led by Grzegorz Nowak.
Information on tickets at: https://teatrwielki.pl