Stanisław Moniuszko Halka opera to libretto by Włódzimierz Wolski. Directed 2019 by Mariusz Treliński at the Theater an der Wien. Stars Corinne Winters (Halka), Tomasz Konieczny (Janusz), Piotr Beczała (Jontek), Alexey Tikhomirov (Stolnik), Natalia Kawałek (Zofia), Łukasz Jakobski (Dziemba), Sreten Manojlović (Dudziarz), and Paul Schweinsester (Góral). Łukasz Borowicz conducts the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor (Chorus Master Erwin Ortner). Set design by Boris Kudlička; costume design by Dorothée Roqueplo; lighting design by Marc Heinz; video design by Bartek Macias; choreography by Tomasz Jan Wygoda; hair and make up design by Łukasz Pycior; dramatic advisor was Piotr Gruszczyński. Directed for TV by Tiziano Mancini. Sung in Polish. Released 2022, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
Halka is a Polish classic. I recently saw a traditional version free streaming on TV (maybe the Babińska show). It was hard to watch for outdated production details and a look that was, as my Mexican wife likes to say, “ Un poquito folklorico.” But one glance at the cover art above tells that Mariusz Treliński is giving us an updated version of Halka’s sad story. Steven Jude Tietjen confirms this in the July 2022 Opera News (pages 56-57) stating, “Treliński penetrates far below the opera’s surface to uncover new layers of meaning and resonance.” Tietjen goes on to praise every aspect of the production and the music. And the video clip below shows there’s a lot of firepower assembled here. This title on our buy list for sure.
Here’s a trailer from C Major:
OR
