Helena Modrzejewska (; born Jadwiga Benda; 12 October 1840 – 8 April 1909), known professionally as Helena Modjeska, was a Polish actress who specialized in
Shakespearean
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
and tragic roles. She was successful first on the Polish stage. After emigrating to the United States (and despite her poor command of English), she also succeeded on stage in America and London. She is regarded as the greatest actress in the
history of theatre in Poland.
Early life
Helena Modjeska was born in
Kraków, Poland, on 12 October 1840. Her birth name was recorded as Jadwiga Benda, but she was later baptized Helena Opid, under her godfather's surname.
Modjeska's parentage is unclear. Her mother was Józefa (Misel) Benda, the widow of a prosperous Kraków merchant, Szymon Benda. In her autobiography, Modjeska claimed that her father was a musician named Michael Opid. The Benda family did employ a music teacher named Michal Opid, who later stood as Helena's godfather, however Opid did not father Józefa Benda's two youngest children.
There is evidence to suggest that Helena and her older brother Adolf were the results of an affair between Józefa and Prince
Władysław Hieronim Sanguszko
Prince Władysław Hieronim Sanguszko (1803–1870) was a Polish nobleman, landowner, and conservative politician.
Władysław participated in the November Uprising in 1830–1831. He was owner of Gumniśki estate and ran there an Arab ...
, a wealthy and influential Polish nobleman. Helena also had a younger sister, Josephine, and several half-brothers from Józefa's first marriage. Helena and Josephine were primarily raised by their great-aunt Teresa.
Also glossed over in Modjeska's autobiography were the details concerning her first marriage, to her former guardian, Gustave Sinnmayer (Polish: Gustaw Zimajer). Gustave was an actor and the director of a second-rate provincial theater troupe. The date of Modjeska's marriage to Gustave is uncertain. She discovered many years later that they had not been legally married, because he was still married to his first wife when they wed. Together the couple had two children, a son Rudolf (later renamed
Ralph Modjeski), and a daughter Marylka, who died in infancy.
Gustaw Zimajer used the stage name "Gustaw Modrzejewski." It was the feminine form of this name that Modjeska adopted when she made her stage debut in 1861 as Helena Modrzejewska. Later, when acting abroad, she simplified her name to "Modjeska", which was easier for English-speaking audiences to pronounce.
In her early Polish acting career, Modrzejewska played at
Bochnia,
Nowy Sącz,
Przemyśl,
Rzeszów and
Brzeżany. In 1862 she appeared for the first time in
Lwów, playing in her first Romantic drama, as "Skierka" in
Juliusz Słowacki
Juliusz Słowacki (; french: Jules Slowacki; 4 September 1809 – 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the "Three Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of mod ...
's ''
Balladyna''. From 1863 she appeared at
Stanisławów and
Czerniowce, in plays by Słowacki.
In 1865 Zimajer tried to get her a contract with
Viennese Viennese may refer to:
* Vienna, the capital of Austria
* Viennese people, List of people from Vienna
* Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna
* Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city
* Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance
* ...
theaters, but the plan came to naught due to her poor knowledge of the
German language
German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a ...
. Later that year Helena left Zimajer, taking their son Rudolf, and returning to Kraków. Once there she accepted a four-year theatrical engagement. In 1868 she began appearing in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...
; during her eight years there, she consolidated her status as a theater star. Her half-brothers Józef and Feliks Benda were also well-regarded actors in Poland.
One incident illustrates the restrictions of nineteenth century Polish society. At one of Modrzejewska's Warsaw performances, seventeen secondary-school pupils presented her with a bouquet of flowers tied with a ribbon in the red-and-white Polish national colors. The pupils were accused by the
Russian Imperial authorities of conducting a
patriotic demonstration. They were expelled from their school and banned from admission to any other school. One of the pupils, Ignacy Neufeld, subsequently shot himself; Modrzejewska attended his funeral.
Chłapowski
On September 12, 1868, Modjeska married a Polish nobleman, Karol Bożenta Chłapowski. Best known in America as "Count Bozenta," he was not a
count
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York ...
. His family belonged to the untitled landed gentry (''
ziemiaństwo''). In the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
he adopted the stage name "Count Bozenta" as a ploy to gain publicity. "Bozenta" was easier for an English-speaking audience to pronounce than "Chłapowski."
At the time of their marriage, Chłapowski was employed as the editor of a liberal nationalist newspaper, ''Kraj'' (The Country), which was owned by Adam
Sapieha and a Mr. Sammelson. Modjeska wrote that their home "became the center of the artistic and literary world
f Kraków" Poets, authors, politicians, artists, composers and other actors frequented Modjeska's
salon.
Immigration
In July 1876, after spending more than a decade as the reigning diva of the Polish national theater, for reasons both personal and political, Modjeska and her husband chose to immigrate to the United States.
Once in America, Modjeska and her husband purchased a
ranch
A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most ofte ...
near
Anaheim, California
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most ...
.
Julian Sypniewski, Łucjan Paprowski, and
Henryk Sienkiewicz (winner of the
Nobel Prize for literature in 1905), were among the friends who had accompanied them to California. It was during this period that Sienkiewicz wrote his ''Charcoal Sketches (Szkice węglem).'' Originally the artists
Stanisław Witkiewicz
Stanisław Witkiewicz ( lt, Stanislovas Vitkevičius) (8 May 1851 – 5 September 1915) was a Polish painter, art theoretician, and amateur architect, known for his creation of " Zakopane Style".
Life
Witkiewicz was born in Poszawsze in ...
(father of
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz) and
Adam Chmielowski
Albert Chmielowski (20 August 1845 – 25 December 1916) - born Adam Hilary Bernard Chmielowski - was a Polish nobleman, painter, disabled veteran of the Uprising of 1863, a professed religious and founder of both the Albertine Brothers and Alb ...
(the future
St. Albert) were also to have come with Modjeska's group, but they changed their plans. She was a member of the
Pacific Coast Women's Press Association.
Modjeska intended to abandon her career and envisioned herself living "a life of toil under the blue skies of California, among the hills, riding on horseback with a gun over my shoulder." The reality proved less cinematic. None of the colonists knew the first thing about ranching or farming, and they could barely speak English. The utopian experiment failed, the colonists went their separate ways, and Modjeska returned to the stage, reprising the
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
an roles that she had performed in Poland. Perhaps the best account of daily life on the ranch is
Theodore Payne's memoir, ''Life on the Modjeska Ranch in the Gay Nineties''.
American career
On 20 August 1877, Modjeska debuted at the
California Theatre in San Francisco in an English version of
Ernest Legouvé's ''
Adrienne Lecouvreur''. She was seen by theatrical agent
Harry J. Sargent who signed her for a tour on the east coast where she made her New York debut. She then spent three years abroad (1879–82), mainly in London, attempting to improve her English, before returning to the stage in America. In 1880, she visited the
Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall and on hearing that the parish church of
Ruan Minor was in need of an organ she collaborated with
Mr J Forbes-Robertson to put on a performance. ''
Romeo and Juliet'' was performed on a temporary stage in the vicarage garden and watched by many local people. A resident of
Penzance and soon-to-be member of parliament for the
St Ives constituency,
Charles Campbell Ross
Charles Campbell Ross (born London 1849; died 9 July 1920, Whitechapel) was a British politician and banker based in Penzance, Cornwall. The grandson of the banker Joseph Carne through his eldest daughter Mary (who married, 9 August 1836, Dr Ar ...
, played the part of
Friar Laurence.
Despite her accent and imperfect command of English, she achieved great success. During her career, she played nine Shakespearean heroines, Marguerite Gautier in ''
Camille'', and
Schiller's ''
Maria Stuart''. In 1883, the year she obtained American citizenship, she produced
Henrik Ibsen's ''
A Doll's House'' in Louisville, Kentucky, the first Ibsen play staged in the United States. In the 1880s and 1890s, she had a reputation as the leading female interpreter of Shakespeare on the American stage.
In 1893, Modjeska was invited to speak to a women's conference at the
Chicago World's Fair, and described the situation of Polish women in the Russian and
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
n-ruled parts of dismembered Poland. This led to a
tsarist
Tsarist autocracy (russian: царское самодержавие, transcr. ''tsarskoye samoderzhaviye''), also called Tsarism, was a form of autocracy (later absolute monarchy) specific to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states ...
ban on her traveling in Russian territory.
Modjeska suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed in 1897, but recovered and soon returned to the stage, continuing to perform for several additional years.
During her last stay in Poland, from 31 October 1902 to 28 April 1903, she appeared on the stage in Lwów, Poznań, and her native Kraków.
On 2 May 1905, she gave a jubilee performance in New York City. Then she toured for two years and ended her acting career, afterward only appearing sporadically in support of charitable causes.
Modjeska died at Newport Beach, California on 8 April 1909, aged 68, from
Bright's disease. Her remains were sent to Kraków to be buried in the family plot at the
Rakowicki Cemetery.
Her autobiography ''Memories and Impressions of Helena Modjeska'' was published posthumously in 1910. A Polish translation ran the same year in the Kraków newspaper ''Czas'' (Time). The last Polish edition of the book appeared in 1957.
Modrzejewska's son, Rudolf Modrzejewski (
Ralph Modjeski), was a civil engineer who gained fame as a designer of bridges.
Legacies
Arden, Modjeska's home from 1888 to 1906, is a registered
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...
.
Named for her are:
* Modjeska Park in Anaheim, California (33°48'53"N 117°57'8"W)
* Helene Street in Anaheim, California
*
Modjeska Canyon, California
Modjeska Canyon is an unincorporated community on the western slope of the Santa Ana Mountains in eastern Orange County, California. It is a suburban community of several hundred residents, with a small park and a volunteer fire station. The ...
(where Arden is located)
* Modjeska Falls, California, at the Glen Alpine Springs Resort
*
Modjeska Peak
Modjeska Peak is the northern mountain of the Saddleback landform in Orange County California. It is the second-highest peak of the Santa Ana Mountains, after Santiago Peak, whose summit is less than to the northwest. Modjeska lies within Clev ...
(the north peak of
Saddleback Mountain).
* Bouquet Helena Modjeska by American perfumer
John Blocki
John Blocki (15 June 1845 – 7 May 1934) was one of America's pioneer perfumers. His perfumes and cosmetics were widely sold and his unique presentation earned him a U.S. patent for perfumery packaging. He was well-known in the trade for his lead ...
of Prussian and Polish descent
*
Modjeskas, a caramel-covered marshmallow confection invented in 1889 by a local candy-maker named Anton Busath (and later made by other candy-makers, including Bauer's Candies, Muth's Candies and
Schimpff's Confectionery
Schimpff's Confectionery is a historic candy maker, confectionery store, and museum located in Jeffersonville, Indiana, within the Old Jeffersonville Historic District. It was opened in 1891 by Gustav Schimpff Sr. and Jr. at the current site, al ...
) in her honor when she visited Louisville, Kentucky.
* A street in
Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, r ...
, formerly named after the German actress
Agnes Sorma when the city was part of Germany as Breslau.
*
Modjeska Youth Theater Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
* A Pullman car, the Helena Modjeska, was named for her.
* SS Helena Modjeska, a 7,000 ton US cargo steamer that ran aground on
Goodwin Sands in 1946.
A statue of Modjeska is located outside the Pearson Park Amphitheater in Anaheim, California.
Modjeska was the mother of bridge engineer
Ralph Modjeski and godmother to artist-author-philosopher
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (son of artist
Stanisław Witkiewicz
Stanisław Witkiewicz ( lt, Stanislovas Vitkevičius) (8 May 1851 – 5 September 1915) was a Polish painter, art theoretician, and amateur architect, known for his creation of " Zakopane Style".
Life
Witkiewicz was born in Poszawsze in ...
, who almost accompanied Modjeska and her family to California in 1876). She was also the aunt of artist
Władysław T. Benda
Władysław Teodor "W.T." Benda (15 January 1873 – 30 November 1948) was a Polish painter, illustrator, and designer.
Early life
The son of musician Jan Szymon Benda, and a nephew of the actress Helena Modrzejewska (known in the United State ...
.
She was godmother to American actress
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore (born Ethel Mae Blythe; August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959) was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Barrymore was a stage, screen and radio actress whose career spanned six decades, and was regard ...
.
Roles
Modjeska's chief tragic roles were:
*
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
:
**
Ophelia in ''
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
''
**
Juliet
Juliet Capulet () is the female protagonist in William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. A 13-year-old girl, Juliet is the only daughter of the patriarch of the House of Capulet. She falls in love with the male protagonist ...
in ''
Romeo and Juliet''
**
Desdemona in ''
Othello''
**
Queen Anne in ''
Richard III''
* Nora in
Henrik Ibsen's ''
A Doll's House''
* Luisa Miller in
Salvadore Cammarano's
Luisa Miller
*
Friedrich Schiller's ''
Maria Stuart'' and ''
Princess Eboli''
*
Marion Delorme in
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
's ''
Marion Delorme''
*
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
's ''Tisbé''
*
Juliusz Słowacki
Juliusz Słowacki (; french: Jules Slowacki; 4 September 1809 – 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the "Three Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of mod ...
's ''Maria Stuart'' and ''Mazeppa''
Modrzejewska was also the
Polish interpreter of the more prominent plays by
Ernest Legouvé,
Alexandre Dumas, père and
fils,
Émile Augier,
Alfred de Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay (; 11 December 1810 – 2 May 1857) was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.His names are often reversed "Louis Charles Alfred de Musset": see "(Louis Charles) Alfred de Musset" (bio), Biography.com, 2007 ...
,
Octave Feuillet and
Victorien Sardou.
In literature
Susan Sontag's award-winning 1999 novel ''
In America'', though fiction, is based on Modjeska's life. The book precipitated a controversy when Sontag was accused of having plagiarized other works about Modjeska.
Modjeska was a character in the novella ''
My Mortal Enemy'' by
Willa Cather.
Scholars Joanna and Catharina Polatynska have posited that Modjeska might have been
Arthur Conan Doyle's model for the character
Irene Adler, the only woman that
Sherlock Holmes came close to loving. In "
A Scandal in Bohemia", Doyle mentions Adler having been prima donna of the fictional Imperial Opera of Warsaw in the same years when Modjeska was at the peak of her theatrical career in Warsaw, and the fictional character's personality recalls that of the actual actress.
Death anniversary
In 2009, in honor of the 100th anniversary of her death, the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków presented the exhibition "Helena Modjeska (1840–1909): For the Love of Art" (8 April – 20 September 2009). The Warsaw staging of the same exhibition ran from October 2009 through January 2010.
[Malgorzata Palka (translator: Piotr Krasnowolski), exhibition notes: ''Helena Modjeska (1840–1909): For the Love of Art''. Muezeum Histoyczne Miasta Krakowa and Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw.] The exhibition included items from the
Bowers Museum
The Bowers Museum is an art museum located in Santa Ana, California. The museum's permanent collection includes more than 100,000 objects, and features notable strengths in the areas of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, Native American art, the art of A ...
in Santa Ana, California.
Google Doodle
To commemorate the 181st anniversary of her birth on 12 October 2021, a
Google Doodle paid homage to Modjeska.
See also
*
Helena Modrzejewska National Stary Theater in Kraków
*
Legitimacy
Legitimacy, from the Latin ''legitimare'' meaning "to make lawful", may refer to:
* Legitimacy (criminal law)
* Legitimacy (family law)
* Legitimacy (political)
See also
* Bastard (law of England and Wales)
* Illegitimacy in fiction
* Legit (d ...
*
List of Poles
*
Modjeska House
Modjeska House, also known as Arden, is a house designed by Stanford White in Modjeska Canyon, California. It is significant for being the only surviving home of Helena Modjeska, a Shakespearean actress and Polish patriot. The property is locat ...
*''
Starring Madame Modjeska
''Starring Madame Modjeska: On Tour in Poland and America'' is a 2011 biography by Beth Holmgren about the Polish actress Helena Modjeska.From a young age, Modjeska's interest in performing was shaped by her brothers and by a tutor who introduced ...
''
Notes
References
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Further reading
*
External links
Archival collections
*
Guide to the Ellen K. Lee Collection on Helena Modjeska and Orange County.Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
Guide to the Collection of Helena Modjeska Theater Memorabilia.Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
Guide to the Helena Modjeska Collection.Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
Madam Modjeska scrapbooks, 1877–1898 held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,
New York Public Library for the Performing ArtsHeroines of the Modern Stagep. 52 by Forrest Izard c. 1915
Other
Helena Modrzejewskaat culture.pl
Modjeska, Helenaat American National Biography
A play in which Modjeska reflects on her lifeA documentary film about Helena Modjeska's life and passionsHelena Modjeska – Icon of Style. Reconstructions of XIX century costumes*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Modjeska, Helena
1840 births
1909 deaths
19th-century American actresses
19th-century Polish actresses
Actors from Orange County, California
Actresses from Kraków
American stage actresses
Burials at Rakowicki Cemetery
History of Orange County, California
People from Los Angeles County, California
Polish emigrants to the United States
Polish stage actresses
Polish salon-holders
Pacific Coast Women's Press Association