Stanisław Moniuszko (波蘭歌劇之父斯坦尼斯拉夫·莫紐什科)

(Gosh I feel embarrassed that I didn’t know (or perhaps only heard without paying much attention to) this name — isn’t this something I should know? :P)

感謝讀者Piotrek來函，我才知道第一次特別注意這個波蘭作曲家（May 5, 1819 in Ubiel, near Minsk – June 4, 1872 in Warsaw, Congress Poland）。查了一下Wikipedia資 料，有趣的是由於他在Vilnius (Lithuania) 任職過，該城還有他的銅像呢！我一定要記得去看看。他一生造訪St Petersburg 多次，受Mikhail Glinka及Alexander Dargomyzhsky欣賞，並且認識Mily Balakirev, Modest Mussorgsky and Alexander Serov，此外也教過César Cui（！）生涯發展的關鍵則是1848年造訪Warsaw（華沙），爾後結識Włodzimierz Wolski、最終並一同作出其代表作歌劇Halka。在Prague他見過Smetana，而且Halka在該地首演竟然還是Smetana準備（指揮？）的！！他也在Weimar和Liszt見過面。

(OK, I checked Amazon and noticed that I did see in some CD shops — mainly in Europe — the CPO full recording of Halka, so I’m not a complete failure.  And I also have listened to recordings of the Polish tenor Wieslaw Ochman, who is featured in this recording too! I think I did read at some points reviews about this recording, very likely because I was thinking about buying it? Obviously the set has its shortcomings, for otherwise I would have snatched it! The review may have been from ClassicsToday.com, although as I just checked — for the first time over a long lapse of time — the website’s new search engine does NOT work at all.  But in any case, Gramophone has a pretty clear verdict, which is credible to me in this instance.  Hmm.. but his Haunted Manor (as some of its excerpts can be heard on Youtube) shows that aside from being skillful, he’s capable of quite some imagination and is equipped with a rather unerring sense of direction!  Maybe this should be on my purchase list this time!!! I’ll probably go for a historical 1995 recording as shown in the picture on the right.)

我在網上找了他的音樂聽聽，的確是浪漫時期，不過就如同匈牙利的Erkel一樣均有（當然不同的）明顯的民族風味，且除此之外風格都算頗為保守，雖然Moniuszko可能泰半還不致僵膩，而且如他歌劇The Haunted Manor第一幕終場可見，他處理重唱的手法除了熟稔外還很有大師似的層次感和方向感，也很有適切的戲劇感。下面是一些例子。

這首很有民俗風味。Prząśniczka — Stanisław Moniuszko

Stanisław Moniuszko – Kozak

STRASZNY DWÓR (The Haunted Manor) Act I finale, even though the sound isn’t great.  However for the music I’d love to see this performance.

EMI’s Haunted Manor: here are some track samples.

And here’s a song collection issued by the brand “Polskie Nagrania – Muza.”

Photo source: Wikipedia. (Quite a handsome square chin, isn’t it?)