Helena Modrzejewska
Helena Modrzejewska actually Jadwiga Helena Misel, married Chłapowska (born October 12, 1840 in Krakow , † April 8, 1909 in Newport Beach , California , USA ) was a Polish actress .
Life
In 1863 she made her debut in an amateur theater in Lviv , which was followed by several years of traveling in Galicia . In 1865 she tried to be hired in Vienna , but did not succeed due to her poor knowledge of German. In 1865 she was engaged at the Kraków City Theater, where she stayed four seasons with growing success. From 1869 to 1876 she played in Warsaw and quickly became popular there. She used her fame to influence the repertoire, particularly advocating Shakespeare , making the English classic popular on Polish stages.
It caused a scandal in Warsaw in the 1870s, when a group of high school students presented her with a bouquet of flowers with a banderole in the Polish national colors after a performance in Warsaw. The Russian administration regarded this as a patriotic demonstration, and the students were expelled from the school with the advice that they were not allowed to accept any other school.
Modrzejewska emigrated to the USA in 1876. Her group of emigrants who settled in California included Henryk Sienkiewicz , Julian Sypniewski and Łucjan Paprocki . Originally, Stanisław Witkiewicz , the father of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz , and Adam Chmielowski also planned to emigrate from Poland with this group. The emigrants became farmers in the city of Anaheim .
Modrzejewska appeared from then on as Helena Modjeska . She studied English diligently and finally made her debut successfully at the California Theater in San Francisco in 1877 in the title role of Eugène Scribes Adrienne Lecouvreur . In the following years she made 26 major tours through the USA. From 1880 to 1885 she made guest appearances in England. In 1883 she took on the US citizenship and achieved a comparable status as a phenomenal actress in the USA as in her homeland, which she visited frequently.
In 1893 the intellectual actress was invited to the World Women's Congress in Chicago , where she reported on the situation of women in Poland under Russian and Prussian rule. Her critical remarks led to her being banned from entering Russian territory. Nevertheless, she traveled to Poland for the last time in 1902/1903 and appeared in theaters in Lemberg, Poznan and Krakow. On May 2, 1905, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City hosted a gala evening in her honor on the initiative of Ignacy Paderewski . She then went on a two-year tour before finally retiring as an actress in 1907. Every now and then she would appear at charity events, but no longer in theater productions. After her retirement, she wrote her memoirs in English, which were published in the USA after her death in 1910. Modrzejewska died in her California residence. In July 1909 she was solemnly buried in Cracow.
In total, she had a repertoire of 260 roles. She was the first woman in Poland to play roles such as Ophelia in Hamlet or Juliet in Romeo and Juliet . Other important roles were Lady Macbeth in Macbeth , the title role in Maria Stuart , Marguerite Gauthier in the stage version of The Lady of the Camellias or the title character in Nora or A Doll's House .
Helena Modrzejewska is one of the most important actresses of the 19th century and has often been compared to Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse . The extremely popular actress was considered one of the most beautiful women of her era. Helena Modrzejewska is the mother of the bridge construction engineer Ralph Modjeski, who became famous in the USA . The traditional Stary Teatr in Krakow bears her name.
literature
- The Story of Helena Modjeska by Mabel Collins (1883)
- Memories and Impressions - Autobiography (1910)
- In America by Susan Sontag (2000) - a story about the fictional actress Maria Załężowska, whose story is based on the life story of Helena Modrzejewska. The film rights to this book were bought from Isabelle Huppert . A film adaptation with Huppert in the leading role by the Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski was planned for 2006.
- Wojciech Dudzik: Modrzewskaja, Helena . In: Manfred Brauneck, Wolfgang Beck (ed.): Theater Lexikon 2. Actors and directors, stage managers, dramaturges and stage designers . Rowohlt's encyclopedia published by Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag. Reinbek near Hamburg, August 2007, ISBN 978 3 499 55650 0 , p. 497
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wojciech Dudzik: Modrzewskaja, Helena . In: Theaterlexikon 2 , p. 497
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Modrzejewska, Helena |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Helena Modjeska |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Polish actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 12, 1840 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Krakow |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 8, 1909 |
| Place of death | Newport Beach , California , USA |