Opera Books
THE OPERA
EDITED BY
ALBERT HILLERY BERGH
VOLUME III.
1909
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Paderewski.
Ignace Paderewski was
born at Padolia, Russian Poland, in January, 1860. At six years of age
he had his first piano lessons from an itinerant fiddler, and at twelve
began systematic study at the Warsaw Conservatory, under Roguski in
harmony and in piano under Janothra, then eighty years old, from
whom Paderewski received the traditions of the past generation. At
sixteen the young pianist made a tour of Russia in concerts, and at
eighteen was made a professor of music at the Conservatory. He was
married at twenty, and a year later was a widower with an infant son.
For a few years the pianist went to Berlin, where he studied under
Kiel and Urban, and in 1882 published a collection of his compositions.
A chance meeting with the Polish actress, Madame Modjeska, resulted,
through the encouragement she offered, in his going to Vienna to study
with the celebrated teacher of piano, Leschetizky. Before he was thirty
Paderewski was made famous by the enthusiasm shown by the people and
press at his Parisian debut in 1888.
His long series of musical compositions, which includes variations
and fugues, songs, sonatas, concertos and many other forms, culminated
in the production at Dresden in 1901 of Paderewski’s gypsy opera,
Manru, which is remarkably strong for a first attempt in that line
of work, and contains much exceflent music.
During one of Paderewski’s many visits to America
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he founded the Paderewski Fund for the encouragement of native American
composers, which every year gives prizes for the best orchestral, choral
and chamber work presented. In February, 1908, Paderewski accepted the
post of director of the Warsaw Conservatory. He was married in 1899 to
Baroness Gorsky von Rossen, widow of the Polish violinist.
Paderewski’s works all show marked individuality, and give promise
for the future. It has long been his wish to retire from concert work
and to devote himself to composition. As a pianist such sensational
success as Paderewski has enjoyed has been equalled only by Liszt and
Rubinstein. The critics have been inclined to be severe with him on
account of this very popularity. Some have even gone so far as to
ascribe his irresistible charm to hypnotism. His playing is
exceptionally brilliant, and appeals both to the ignorant and to the
musically educated, for his interpretations are emotional and poetic,
but also intellectual. Possibly the secret of his power may be best
described by the one word—personality. Paderewski lives as a
gentleman-farmer at his home on Lake Geneva, in Switzerland, or at
Kasnia, his Polish estate. He is an interesting man, charitable, modest
and most approachable, and is said to be greatly beloved by his
neighbors and tenants.
Opera in three acts by
Paderewski. Libretto by Nossig.
Characters: Manru, a gypsy; Tilana, a maiden of Galicia; Hedwig,
her mother; Asa, a gypsy girl; Tirok, a dwarf; Oros, a gypsy chief; Jagu,
a gypsy fiddler; mountaineers, village maidens and gypsies.
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Place, in the Tatra mountain district, Hungary. Time, Nineteentli
Century. First produced at Dresden in 1901.
Manru, a wandering gypsy, has fallen in love with a peasant girl,
Ulana, and has married her against her mother’s wishes. In the first act
mother Hedwig laments her daughter’s loss. While the village lasses are
dancing and frolicking, IJlana returns to her mother to ask her
forgiveness. She is encouraged by a hunchback, Urok, who is devoted to
her, and who persuades the mother to forgive her child on condition that
she shall leave her husband. As Ulana refuses, though she is in dire
need of bread, Hedwig sternly shuts her door upon her daughter. Ulana
turns to Urok, who does his best to persuade her to leave her husband.
Urok is a philosopher; he warns the poor woman that gypsy blood is
never faithful, and that the time will come when Manru will leave his
wife and child. Ulana is frightened, and finally obtains from Urok a
love potion, by which she hopes to secure her husband’s constancy. When
she tries to turn back into the mountains she is surrounded by the
returning villagers, who tease and torment her and the hunchback, until
Manru comes to their rescue. But his arrival only awakes the villagers’
wrath. They fall upon him and are about to kill him when mother Hedwig
comes out and warns them not to touch the outlaws on whom her curse has
fallen.
The second act takes place in Manru’s hiding-place in the mountains.
The gypsy is tired of domesticity. He longs for freedom, and quarrels
with his wife, whose sweetness bores him. She patiently rocks her
child’s cradle and sings him to rest. Suddenly Manru hears
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in the distance the tones of a gypsy fiddle. He follows the sound, and
soon returns with an old gypsy, who does his best to lure him back to
his tribe. But love and duty prevail; and when Ulana offers him the
love-philtre he draws it at one draught. Immediately feeling the effect
of the potent drug, he becomes cheerful, and receives his wife, who has
adorned herself with a wreath of flowers, with open arms.
In the third act Manru rushes out of the small, close hut. His
intoxication is gone; he gasps for air and freedom. Wearily he stretches
himself on the, ground and falls asleep. The full moon, shining on him,
throws him into a trance, during which he rises to follow the gypsy
tribe whose songs he hears. In this state he is found by Asa, the gypsy
queen, who loves him and at once claims him as her own. But the tribe
refuses to receive the apostate, and their chief, Oros, pronounces a
terrible anathema against him. However, Asa prevails upon her tribe to
pardon Manru.
Oros in anger flings down his staff of office and departs, and
Manru is elected chief in his place. Once more he hesitates, but Asa’s
beauty triumphs; he follows her and his own people. At this moment Ulana
appears. Seeing that her husband has forsaken her, she implores Urok,
who has been present during the whole scene, to bring Manru back to her,
but in vain. When Ulana sees Manru climbing the mountain path hand in
hand with Asa, she drowns herself in the lake. But Manru does not live
to enjoy the result of his treachery. Oros, hidden behind the rocks, is
on the watch for him, and, tearing Asa from him, he throws his rival
from the rocks into the lake.
Last updated March 14, 2007