''Manru'' is an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

(lyrical

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

) in three acts, music by

Ignacy Jan Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versaill ...

composed to the

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

Alfred Nossig Alfred Nossig (born Lemberg 18 April 1864 – died Warsaw 22 February 1943) was a Jewish sculptor, writer, and activist in Zionism and Polish civil society. During World War II he was held in the Warsaw Ghetto. He was accused of collaboration w ...

based on the novel ''A Hut Behind the Village'' (1854) by

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (28 July 1812 – 19 March 1887) was a Polish writer, publisher, historian, journalist, scholar, painter, and author who produced more than 200 novels and 150 novellas, short stories, and art reviews, which makes him the ...

. The libretto was written in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

to meet a commission from the

Dresden Opera The Semperoper () is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra). It is also home to the Semperoper Ballett. The building is located on the T ...

, where it was premiered on 29 May 1901. The libretto was translated to

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

by Paderewski and Stanisław Rossowski for a performance in Lwów (today

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

) on 8 June 1901.

Performance history

After its premiere in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

(

Ernst von Schuch Ernst Edler von Schuch, born Ernst Gottfried Schuch (23 November 1846, Graz – 10 May 1914, Niederlößnitz/Radebeul Dresden) was an Austrian conductor who became famous through his working collaborations with Richard Strauss at the Dresden ...

conducting), and its Polish version premiere in Lwów, it was performed in Polish at the Teatr Wielki, Warsaw on May 24, 1902. In that year the original German version was also performed in Prague, Zurich, Monte Carlo, Nice, Bonn and Kiev. The

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

premiere (sung in English) took place on the stage of the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

House on February 14, 1902, with the debut of Alexander von Bandrowski in the title role,

Walter Damrosch Walter Johannes Damrosch (January 30, 1862December 22, 1950) was a German-born American conductor and composer. He was the director of the New York Symphony Orchestra and conducted the world premiere performances of various works, including Ge ...

(a friend of the composer) conducting. The opera initially received an enthusiastic reception, with the premiere being marked as "one of high distinction." Nevertheless it received only 9 performances in the season 1901/1902 (of which 4 performances were staged in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) and hasnever not since been revived there. ''Manru'' remains to this day the only

Polish opera Polish opera may be broadly understood to include operas staged in Poland and works written for foreign stages by Polish composers, as well as opera in the Polish language. The tradition reaches back to Italian language entertainments of the baro ...

ever presented at The

Performance history

According to "Opera Guide" by Jozef Kanski, (PWM 1978) "Grand Opera Theatre in Warsaw revived the work in 1930 and gave a further run of performances in 1936. Poznán Opera launched a completely new production in 1938. Since 1945 there have been no productions outside Poland. The Polish performances included ones in Poznán and Warsaw in 1961 and another in Wrocław in 1990 to mark the composer’s 130th birthday. In 2001, this time to mark the 60th anniversary of Paderewski’s death, Wrocław Opera gave a concert performance. It is this version on which the present recording is based."

Available recordings

*CD Lower Silesian Opera House, cond. Ewa Michnik, live performance Wroclaw (2001), DUX 0368/0369, World premiere recording of "Manru" *DVD Opera Nova Bydgoszcz DUX 9793/2011, 2013 *DVD Manru - Peter Berger, Ewa Tracz, Monika Ledzion-Porcynska, Anna Lubanska, Mikolaj Zalasinski, Dariusz Machej, Lukasz Golinski, Maciej Ufniak, Stanislaw Tomanek, Teatru Wielkiego-Opery Narodowej, Grzegorz Nowak 2021 Frederick Chopin Institute

References

Notes

Sources

* Marcynski, Jacek (2001). Liner notes to recording of ''Manru'', Dux Recordings DUX 0368/0369

External links

Manru
digitized by BYU on archive.org

* ttps://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1902/02/15/432222502.pdf Mr. Paderewski's Opera; The New York Times, 1902
Opera Today: Paderewski: Manru
{{Authority control Operas German-language operas Operas by Ignacy Paderewski Operas set in Poland Operas based on novels 1901 operas