Juan David Latorre
On the occasion of the National Independence Day, the Polish Embassy, the Instituto Polaco de Cultura and the Instituto Adam Mickiewicz offered last Saturday the premiere of the opera Halka, by the Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko, at the Teatro Real in Madrid.
The composer of this enormous work of Romanticism, Stanisław Moniuszko (known as the Polish Verdi), is considered to be the creator of Polish national opera, who deployed in this title some of the most moving and romantic music in the history of the European country.
Anna Sroka, Polish Ambassador, underlined the importance for the Embassy of being able to celebrate Polish Independence Day in a “wonderful place” such as the Royal Theatre. “It has been 105 years, she noted, since Poland gained independence again, after 123 years of disappearing from the map of the world, so for us it is a very emotional day, thanks to the efforts of generations who have spoken Polish at home, who have celebrated Polish holidays, Polish culture, thanks to Polish soldiers who fought on opposing fronts because Poland was divided between Germany, Austria and Russia and during the First World War the Poles fought against them.”
The Instituto Polaco de Cultura has been a member of the Advisory Council of the Royal Theatre since 2019.As Magdalena Majda, acting director of the Polish Institute of Culture, points out in the programme, “this work by Stanisław Moniuszko, written at an extremely difficult time for the Polish nation when it had no state of its own as a result of the partitions made by neighbouring countries, is the essence of Polishness”.
At the end of the opera Halka, the guests expressed their surprise and admiration for the great orchestration and the beauty of Stanisław Moniuszko’s music, as well as for the performances of all the performers, especially Corinne Winters (Halka), Tomasz Konieczny (Janusz) and Piotr Beczala (Jontek), under the direction of Lukasz Borowicz, to whom they were able to express their admiration during the reception.
The event was attended by Aurora Mejía, Director of the Coordination Office for the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, and Pascual Navarro, Secretary of State for the European Union, together with the Ambassador of Cyprus, Helena Mina.
