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Stanisław Moniuszko
Moniuszko in 1865
Born	(1819-05-05)5 May 1819 Ubiel, Russian Empire
Died	4 June 1872(1872-06-04) (aged 53) Warsaw, Russian Empire
Works	List of compositions
Signature

Stanisław Moniuszko (Polish pronunciation: [stãˈɲiswaf mɔ̃ˈɲuʃkɔ] ; May 5 (17), 1819 – June 4, 1872) was a Polish composer, conductor and teacher. He wrote many popular art songs and operas, and his music is filled with patriotic folk themes of the peoples of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (mainly Poles, Lithuanians and Belarusians). He is generally referred to as "the father of Polish national opera". Since the 1990s Stanisław Moniuszko is being recognized in Belarus as an important figure to Belarusian culture as well.

Life

Moniuszko was born into a noble landowning family in Ubiel, Minsk Governorate (Russian Empire, now Belarus). His father, Czesław, and his uncle, Ignacy, both served in Napoleon’s army. His first piano teacher was his mother, Elżbieta (Elizabeth) Madżarska. He later continued his musical education in Warsaw and Minsk, and studied under Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen in Berlin. In 1858 he was appointed conductor at the Warsaw Opera.

In 1940, he married Aleksandra Mueller and settled down in Vilnius, where he took the position of organist at the Church of St. John's. In 1842, the premier staging of Halka, considered one of his most notable operas, took place in Vilnius and was conducted by the composer himself. Moniuszko travelled to Sankt Petersburg in order to introduce its audiences to his music. They were received with acclaim and had favourable reviews. During his stay there, Moniuszko became acquainted with some of the leading composers and musicians of Russia, including Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Cesar Cui, and Alexander Serov.

In 1854, he established St Cecilia's Society with the assistance of Achilles Bonoldi, its amateur members giving two public concerts twice a year. Between 1862–1864, Moniuszko worked on The Haunted Manor, one of his most popular operas. It premiered on 28 September 1865 at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw. In 1868, Moniuszko travelled to Prague where he met Bedřich Smetana in order to discuss the staging of Halka. The same year the opera was perfomred at the National Theatre in Prague and was directed by Smetana himself. In 1869, his opera Paria premiered in Warsaw while Halka was staged for the first time in Moscow. He also served as a professor at the Warsaw Conservatory.

In 1871, he published Pamiętnik do nauki harmonii (A Textbook for Studying Harmony). On 2 February 1878, the Grand Theatre in Warsaw staged his last opera Beata. He died of heart attack in Warsaw in 1872 and was buried at the Powązki Cemetery. His funeral was attendted by up to 100,000 people and turned into a national and patriotic manifestation.

Works

Moniuszko composed more than 300 individual songs, primarily to texts of Polish poets, and around two dozen operas. His series of twelve song books is notable and contains songs to the words of Adam Mickiewicz, Antoni Edward Odyniec, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Stefan Witwicki, Antoni Malczewski, and Wincenty Pol.

Moniuszko noted that his songs, which were published under the collective title Śpiewnik Domowy (Domestic Songs), had a national character. Their 'Polishness' is found in his use of and reference to traditional Polish dance rhythms like Polonaise, Mazurka, Kujawiak, and Krakowiak and the propagation of texts written by Polish national poets. The songs were often performed by the 19th-century Polish choirs in Austria, Germany, and Russia, and became a point of reference for other Polish composers. Moniuszko's opera style bears similarities to that of Daniel Auber and Gioachino Rossini, but with stronger emphasis on chorus and melodies inspired by Polish dances. Lithuanians stress, that Stanisław Moniuszko was eagerly using Lithuanian motifs – e.g. his cantatas "Milda", "Nijolė", based on Lithuanian mythology, were issued in Vilnius.

Halka is an opera to a libretto written by Włodzimierz Wolski, a young Warsaw poet with radical social views. After being staged in Warsaw in 1858, it became the most widely known Polish opera and is part of the canon of Polish national operas.

Modern performances

An English version of Straszny dwór (The Haunted Manor, or The Haunted Castle) was created and premiered by the student operatic society at Bristol University in 1970; this version has been performed since, specifically in 2001 by Opera South, which company also presented the world premiere of a specially created new English version of Verbum Nobile in 2002.

In 2009, Pocket Opera, of San Francisco, CA, USA, premiered Artistic Director Donald Pippin's English language translation of The Haunted Manor; and in 2010, Pippin's translation of Halka.

Moniuszko's opera Flis (The Raftsman) was performed and recorded in the Grand Theatre of Polish National Opera at the 2019 Chopin and his Europe International Music Festival, marking the 200th anniversary of Moniuszko's birth.

Paria was performed at Poznań Opera in June 2019, directed by Graham Vick and conducted by Gabriel Chmura.

Moniuszko's operas are regularly performed at the Belarusian National Opera.

Remembrance

• On 26 October 1908, a commemorative plaque devoted to Moniuszko was unveiled at the building on 3 Mazowiecka Street in Warsaw where the composer died.
• In 1922, a sculpture of Moniuszko created by Boleslovas Balzukevičius was unveiled at the Church of St. Catherine in Vilnius, Lithuania.
• In 1936, a statue of Moniuszko designed by Jan Szczepkowski was unveiled at the Teatralny Square in front of the Grand Theatre in Warsaw, Poland. In 1944, during World War II, the original monument was destroyed by the Nazi Germans. It was subsequently reconstructed in 1965, a year after the death of the sculptor. Apart from Warsaw, the statues of Moniuszko can also be found in such Polish cities as Katowice, Toruń, Częstochowa, Racibórz, Żory and Łódź.
• A sculpture of the composer is featured on the façade of the Hungarian State Opera House, Budapest, at Andrássy 22 Street and was created by Károly Antal.
• Between 1990–1996, Moniuszko was featured on the 100,000-zloty banknote issued by the National Bank of Poland.
• In 2004, a street named in honour of the composer was opened in Minsk, Belarus.
• In 2016, a statue of Moniuszko (alongside the statue of Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich) was ceremonially unveiled nearby the Minsk City Hall. The statue was designed by Leu and Siarhei Humileusky.
• In 2018, the Sejm of Poland and the Senate of Poland established 2019 as "The Year of Moniuszko" to commemorate the composer's 200th birth anniversary.
• The images of Moniuszko also appreaed on a number of postage stamps issued by the Polish Post including in 1951, 1958, 1972, and 2019.
• On 5 January 2019, the Warszawa Centralna railway station was officially given the name of Stanisław Moniuszko.

Notes

1. There is a Museum of Stanisław Moniuszko in Belarus.
2. The Moniuszko family had roots in the area of Goniądz in Podlachia.

References

1. Prosnak 1980, pp. 15, 173.
2. ^ Samson, Jim, ed. (2001). The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music. Cambridge University Press. p. 718. ISBN 978-0521590174.
3. ^ Jones, Barrie, ed. (1999). The Hutchinson Concise Dictionary of Music. Routledge. p. 424. ISBN 978-1579581787.
4. Аляксей Хадыка (May 22, 2009). "Станіслаў Манюшка — паляк, літвін..." [Stanislaw Moniuszko – Pole and Lithuanian] (in Belarusian). Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved January 20, 2013. NovyChas.org, Culture. Retrieved from the Internet Archive, February 18, 2013.
5. "Stanisław Moniuszko – Ojciec polskiej opery". poland.us.
6. "Праправнучка Станислава Монюшко: 'В Минске должен появиться памятник композитору'" by Кастусь Лашкевич , 19 Oktober 2009, Tut.By (in Belarusian)
7. Stanisław Moniuszko Museum, Belarus
8. ^ Murphy, Michael (2001). "Moniuszko and Musical Nationalism in Poland". In White, Harry; Murphy, Michael (eds.). Musical Constructions of Nationalism: Essays on the History and Ideology of European Musical Culture 1800-1945. Cork University Press. pp. 166–167. ISBN 9781859181539.
9. Prosnak, Jan (1980). Moniuszko. Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne. p. 7. ISBN 8322400012.
10. "How Family Shaped the Father of Polish Opera". culture.pl. Retrieved October 13, 2024.
11. ^ "The Lesser Known Faces of Stanisław Moniuszko". culture.pl. May 2, 2019. Retrieved October 13, 2024.
12. ^ Balthazar, Scott L. (2013). Historical Dictionary of Opera. Scarecrow Press. pp. 226–227. ISBN 978-0810867680.
13. ^ "Stanisław Moniuszko". culture.pl. Retrieved October 13, 2024.
14. Żukow-Karczewski, Marek (1989). "Moniuszko w Krakowie" [Moniuszko in Kraków]. Echo Krakowa (in Polish).
15. Prosnak 1980, p. 174.
16. Agnieszka Topolska (June 4, 2012). "140 lat temu zmarł Stanisław Moniuszko – wspomnienie". meakultura.pl (in Polish). Retrieved October 13, 2024.
17. Chrenkoff, Magdalena (2017). "Stanisław Moniuszko's Oeuvre as a Builder of National Identity During Partition Times". In Povilionienė, Rima (ed.). Sounds, Societies, Significations: Numanistic Approaches to Music. Springer. p. 61. ISBN 978-3319836522.
18. ^ Grazia, Donna M. Di, ed. (2012). Nineteenth-Century Choral Music. Routledge. p. 384. ISBN 978-0415988537.
19. STANISLAVAS MONIUŠKA (STANISŁAW MONIUSZKO)
20. Murphy 2001, p. 168.
21. "Opera: Moniuszko's Haunted Castle"; by Bernard Holland, The New York Times, April 23, 1986
22. "Festiwal "Chopin i jego Europa"" [Chopin and his Europe]. Fryderyk Chopin Institute (in Polish). 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
23. Lipiński, Stanisław (1908). "Odsłonięcie tablicy pamiątkowej Moniuszki w Warszawie" [The Unveiling of Moniuszko's Commemorative Plaque in Warsaw]. Nowości Ilustrowane (in Polish). Warsaw. p. 17.
24. "Żory – Popiersie Stanisława Moniuszki". polskaniezwykla.pl (in Polish). Retrieved October 13, 2024.
25. "Banknot 100 000 złotych". banknotypolskie.pl (in Polish). Retrieved October 13, 2024.
26. Filip Lech (September 5, 2016). "W Mińsku stanął pomnik Moniuszki i Dunina-Marcinkiewicza". culture.pl (in Polish). Retrieved October 13, 2024.
27. "M.P. 2018 poz. 731". isap.sejm.gov.pl (in Polish). Retrieved October 13, 2024.
28. "M.P. 2019 poz. 34". isap.sejm.gov.pl (in Polish). Retrieved October 13, 2024.
29. "Stanisław Moniuszko. Geniusz muzyki, poczciwy wieszcz i gwiazda popkultury". polskieradio.pl (in Polish). Retrieved October 13, 2024.
30. "Znaczek na 200lecie urodzin S. Moniuszko". stanislawmoniuszko.pl (in Polish). Retrieved October 13, 2024.
31. "Dworzec Centralny będzie nosił imię Stanisława Moniuszki". rdc.pl (in Polish). Retrieved October 13, 2024.

External links

• Free scores by Stanisław Moniuszko at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Free scores by Stanisław Moniuszko in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• List of works, lieder.net
• "Stanisław Moniuszko", biography, list of works, Polish Music Center, University of Southern California
• How Family Shaped the Father of Polish Opera
• The Lesser Known Faces of Stanisław Moniuszko
• Sound examples and discussion of String Quartet No. 1 and No. 2, editionsilvertrust.com
• Collection of works by Stanisław Moniuszko in National Digital Library of Poland (Polona)
• Stanislaw Moniuszko. Musical Romantic from Minsk Region to the 200th anniversary of his birth
• Works by Stanislaw Moniuszko on the Belarusian stage

v t e Stanisław Moniuszko
List of compositions
Operas	Halka (1848) Hrabina, The Countess (1860) Verbum nobile (1861) The Haunted Manor (1865) Paria (1869)
Category

• Biography
• Classical music

• 1819 births
• 1872 deaths
• People from Chervyen District
• People from Igumensky Uyezd
• Composers from the Russian Empire
• Music educators from the Russian Empire
• Polish male conductors (music)
• Polish male opera composers
• Male classical organists
• Polish classical organists
• Polish conductors (music)
• Polish music educators
• Polish opera composers
• Polish people of Armenian descent
• Polish Romantic composers
• 19th-century classical composers
• 19th-century conductors (music)
• 19th-century organists
• Academic staff of the Chopin University of Music
• Burials at Powązki Cemetery