Halka

Halka (Helen) is an opera by the Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko. The libretto was by Wlodzimierz Wolski (1824-1882), a young Warsaw poet with radical social views. It is part of the canon of Polish national operas. The first performance of the two-act version was in Vilnius on 1 January 1848. This was staged in Vilnius on 28 February 1854. A four-act version was performed in Warsaw on 1 January 1858. The opera was subsequently produced in th... more

Halka (Helen) is an opera by the Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko. The libretto was by Wlodzimierz Wolski (1824-1882), a young Warsaw poet with radical social views. It is part of the canon of Polish national operas. The first performance of the two-act version was in Vilnius on 1 January 1848. This was staged in Vilnius on 28 February 1854. A four-act version was performed in Warsaw on 1 January 1858. The opera was subsequently produced in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Turkey, Russia and Cuba. The opera has recently been staged and directed by Krzysztof Jasinski, with musical direction by Wojciech Michniewski, choreography by Emil Wesolowski, with the stage movement devised by Anatol Kocydlowski with The Ballet and Orchestra of the Krakow Opera. The opera has included soloists, such as Ewa Biegas and Maria Mitrosz alternating in the title role, Maciej Komander and Tomasz Kuk as Jontek, Przemyslaw Firek and Janusz Borowicz as the Esquire, Andrzej Biegun and Andrzej... less