Skirt

From Polish to Italian land or the universality of a masterpiece

Halka's world is one of the most universal stories in all of Moniuszko's work. Every culture knows this figure: a woman wounded by love, pushed to the margins by the social order, left alone with decisions that turned out to be stronger than herself. The Italian version becomes the key — not the goal in itself — the opening of the score and emotions, through which the next performances, already sung in Polish, will be able to sound fuller, cleaner, more painful. It is not a change in the identity of the work, but the unveiling of it. The Italian language allows you to take away the burden of national habits for a while and listen to music and relationships that do not need local hallmarks.

This staging does not want to fix or modernize anything. The line between the imaginary and the real world remains blurred, because it is precisely in this uncertainty that the meaning of opera is born. We do not show the realistic village or the rite, but the energy of the community and its powerlessness. In this world there is reconciliation with the fate of the subjects, from which death or madness seemed the only escape. Jontek has no revenge. Janusz does not pay for his guilt. The highlanders continue to dance in the halls, as if the tragedy was only a momentary rupture in the rhythm of life. This indifference is perhaps the most cruel. The community continues, the tragedy is pushed to the sidelines as an incident that should not disrupt the rhythm of life. It is this indifference that turns out to be the most brutal. Reconciliation with fate becomes the norm, and the only escape is death or madness.

Jontek is therefore an anti-hero not for lack of affection, but for an excess of consent to fate. And this question remains as relevant today as in Moniuszko's time: does goodness without courage become a form of complicity?

Therefore, the thought arises to reverse the historical obviousness and give the narrative to the spirit of Halka. It is she who becomes the guide to this story, not as a victim, but as a consciousness that cannot be silenced. Spirits do not forgive easily. Maybe that's why Halka is so painful for our audience to this day. It is as if this voice were saying directly that any woman — even the modern, liberated, independent, educated woman — can have a love so great that it destroys. Beyond social conventions, beyond the schemes, beyond the rational systems of the world. And that in this sense Halka does not belong to the 19th century or to a single country. It happens whenever the feeling becomes stronger than the order that was supposed to protect it.

In this story, it all starts with absence. We don't know Halina. Halka is already entering the scene — named, described, closed in diagnosis. Wounded, struggling, touched by madness, as if the world saw in her only an effect, never a process. It is a surprisingly non-operatic gesture: to take the heroine's way and leave her with only consequences. As if a woman begins to exist only when she ceases to be comfortable. And here the question comes back in full force today: is not the modern woman, fighting for her feelings and priorities, still seen as irrational, exaggerating, too intense. The skirt no longer has the language of dialogue. Her speech becomes extreme.

Madness so beloved by opera convention. Moniuszko can, without complexes, compete with the genius of Donizetti and his crazy Lucia, the last vision of the dying Violetta or the harsh realism of Janačka Jenufa.

Therefore, in this staging, the narrative is taken over by ghosts. They are the ones who change the perspective. Halka's spirit is no longer just a shadow of the victim, but a consciousness that guides us through history and does not allow us to close it. Spirits do not forgive easily because they remember what has been withheld. They reverse historical obviousness, shatter the peace of those who have passed on. Maybe that's why Halka still hurts our audience so much. As if this voice made it clear that every woman, including today's liberated, independent, educated woman, can have a love so great that it destroys. Beyond social conventions, beyond schemes, beyond the rational order of the world. And we are still learning how to look at this force not as madness, but as a truth that we do not want to hear.

Michal Znaniecki

Libretto — Włodzimierz Wolski

Libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Achille Bonoldi

Opera in 4 acts

TERMS

Halka performances are made from materials of the Polish Music Publishing House.