Maria Fołtyn

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Maria Fołtyn (born January 28, 1924 or 1925 in Radom , † December 2, 2012 in Warsaw ) was a Polish opera singer ( soprano ), opera director and opera director.

Life

Fołtyn sang in the church choir as a young girl . During the Second World War she performed at concerts in the Catacombs of Warsaw. With the help of a fundraiser from friends, she was able to study singing . She then studied with the well-known Polish bassist Adam Didur , the soprano Ada Sari and with Iwo Gall.

She made her debut in 1949 at the Opera Studio Danzig (Gdańsk) with the title role in the opera Halka by Stanisław Moniuszko . The role of the unhappily in love Goralen girl Halka became Fołtyn's most famous role. She sang this role in over 200 performances over the course of her career. She was then engaged as a permanent member of the Warsaw National Opera (Opera Narodowa). She stayed there in the ensemble until 1962 and initially sang smaller roles, but then had her breakthrough in 1953, again with the role of Halka. From 1962 to 1965 she was engaged at the Leipzig Opera House ; there she sang mainly the youthful-dramatic roles in the operas of Richard Wagner. She then made a guest appearance in West Germany . At the Lübeck Theater she sang as Amelia in Un ballo in maschera , as Giulietta in Hoffmann's Tales and in the title role of the opera Tosca , which is considered one of her brilliant roles. Since 1967 she sang at the Łódź Opera House ; there she appeared, inter alia, as Yaroslavna in Prince Igor .

Fołtyn mainly interpreted the subject of lyrical-dramatic and youthful-dramatic soprano on stage. Her important stage roles included Amelia in Un ballo in maschera , the title role in Aida , Maddalena in Andrea Chénier , Mimì in La Bohème , Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer , Elsa in Lohengrin , Elisabeth in Tannhäuser (all Wagner roles at the Leipzig Opera House ), Tatjana in Eugene Onegin and Lisa in Queen of Spades .

She has made guest appearances at the Berlin State Opera , the Bavarian State Opera , the Hamburg State Opera , the Stuttgart State Opera , the Cologne Opera House , the Frankfurt Opera House and the Zurich Opera House . She sang at the Hungarian National Opera in Budapest , Moscow , Kiev , Leningrad , Prague and Helsinki . In North America she performed in Chicago , Montreal and with the title role of the opera Halka at New York's Carnegie Hall . In 1971 she appeared in Havana in the title role of the opera Halka ; at the same time she also directed this production. Some sources also cite this as her directorial debut.

At the age of 45 Fołtyn began studying theater studies . In 1972 (according to other information: 1973) she graduated from the Warsaw Theater Academy. Since 1970 she worked as a director in Warsaw; at the same time she held a professorship at the Warsaw Music Academy . She staged operas, including at the forest opera Sopot . However, she did not succeed in permanently reviving the festival.

Her opera productions include Faust (Danzig Opera House), La sonnambula and Pique Dame (Bytom Opera House) and Lucia di Lammermoor (Krakow Opera House). She has often staged the Polish opera repertoire, as well as works by contemporary Polish composers such as Romuald Twardowski, as well as musicals ( Anatevka at the Łódź Opera House) and Zarzuelas ( Cecilia Valdes by Gonzalo Roig in Danzig and Posen ).

From 1977 (according to other sources: 1978) to 1998 she was the conductor and director of the Moniuszko Festival in the Polish spa town of Kudowa-Zdrój . In 1992 she initiated and directed the First Stanisław Moniuszko International Singing Competition. The competition later took place in 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2012 as well.

Fołtyn has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Golden Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland and the Order of Polonia Restituta . She also received an honorary doctorate from the Warsaw Theater Academy.

Audio documents

Recordings with Maria Fołtyn were released on the Polish record label Muza . There are also radio recordings and live recordings.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ after Kutsch / Riemens: Large singer lexicon . 2003, Vol. 2, p. 508
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Zmarła Maria Fołtyn, światowej sławy śpiewaczka operowa. In: Gazeta Warsawa. December 2, 2012 (death report and obituary), accessed December 4, 2012
  3. ↑ a b c d Maria Foltyn is dead. In: Polskie Radio . December 3, 2012 (obituary).
personal data
SURNAME Fołtyn, Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish opera singer (soprano), opera director and opera director
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1924 or January 28, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Radom , Poland
DATE OF DEATH December 2, 2012
Place of death Warsaw , Poland