HALKA - JUBILEE 60TH ANNIVERSARY

Opera in four acts. Performance in the original Polish language version with Polish and English subtitles.

While Fryderyk Chopin won great recognition in France as the cultural ambassador of an oppressed nation, his younger colleague, Stanisław Moniuszko, was active in the field of culture in his own homeland. And like Chopin, Moniuszko combined Western European romanticism with the spirit of Polish culture in his work. HALKA is undoubtedly an example of a successful combination of features of Italian, French and German opera with elements typical of Polish folklore and traditions. In addition, this opera, thanks to its patriotic and critical expression of social relations, became an expression of national identity.

To understand this operatic parable about an abandoned girl, it must be placed in the context of the social rift that led to the bloody Galician massacre in the time of Moniuszko. Halka is a creature suspended between two worlds: the mischievous nobility and the vengeful highlanders. There are no clearly bad and good characters here. This is not a tearful melodrama. This is a cruel parable of human loneliness.