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Halka throws her arms around Janusz and he says that he still loves her as he did before. He tells Halka to meet him after dark at the statue of the Virgin Mary by the river; they will escape together to start a new life somewhere else. Once Halka goes out, Janusz returns to the party. Act 2. Halka is waiting for Janusz by the river.
May 12, 2024 · Thanks to the efforts of Piotr Beczała and others, the Polish National Opera and the Theater an der Wien co-produced Mariusz Treliński’s new staging of Halka, which became a highlight of the jubilee celebrations. The director presents the story from the standpoint of Janusz, whose guilty conscience haunts him years after the tragic events.
The new version of the work was divided into four acts. Its premiere on 1 January 1858 was a triumph, hailed as a huge artistic achievement and a patriotic event. These days, the date is considered the birthday of Polish opera. Performed 150 times during the composer’s lifetime, Halka saw over 500 performances before the end of the century.
Nov 6, 2021 · Halka, holding her belly, calls out “Our baby is dying” (aha!), considers setting fire to the church to kill Janusz, but then, “sober and calm,” climbs atop a high rock and (anticipating Puccini’s Tosca by several decades, or perhaps imitating Wagner’s Senta from 11 years earlier) leaps to her death in the river below.
Cześnik and Janusz taking care of Zofia‘s peace cover up the incident. Janusz decides to calm Halka down. The girl dreams of meeting Janusz, who is coming and deceiving the poor girl, promising her life and happiness together. However, he sends her out of the city, where he promises to meet her again.
Halka is a peasant girl and Janusz a wealthy landowner, which helps to explain why Halka kept a place in the repertoire in the Soviet Union; it tied in nicely with Stalin’s decision to obliterate the Kulaks (wealthy landowners) after they refused to cooperate with the collectivisation of farms in 1930. There is a very fine 1950s recording in ...
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A "national" opera - though not "nationalist" in the broad sense of the term - Halka occupies in its country the seminal position occupied by The Poacher in Germany, Life for the Tsar in Russia, Hunyadi László in Hungary or The Bartered Bride in the Czech Republic. Written when Poland was under Russian rule, Moniuszko rose through it as the musical hero - with Chopin's permission - of an ...
