Wojciech Bogusławski

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Wojciech Bogusławski before 1829

Wojciech Romuald Bogusławski (German also Adalbert Bogusławski ; born April 9, 1757 in Glinno near Posen ; † July 23, 1829 in Warsaw ) was a Polish actor , opera singer , writer , translator and theater director of the Polish Enlightenment and founder of the opera in Kalisz and various Polish theater. He is also called the "father of the Polish theater".

He wrote more than 80 plays, mostly comedies by Western European writers. In 1811 he introduced Shakespeare to the Polish public for the first time with his translation of Hamlet . As a theater director, he improved the situation of the acting profession and turned actors from entertainers into recognized specialists.

Life

Memorial stone in Glinno, the birthplace of Wojciech Bogusławski

Bogusławski came from the lower nobility . He was the son of Leopold Andrzej Bogusławski (* 1723, † 1793), regent of Posen and later the city of Krakow, and his wife Anna Teresa Linowska (* 1734, † before 1770). He attended a Piarist college in Warsaw from 1769 and studied at the Cracow Academy from 1770 and at the Nowodworski Schools from 1771. In 1774 he went to the court of Bishop Kajetan Sołtyk , where he took part in amateur theater performances. In 1775 he joined the Lithuanian infantry. Three years later, he left the military as a cadet without having been promoted.

In 1784 he was accepted into the Freemason lodge "Iziz Temple", was in the "Temple of Wisdom" during the Prussian rule of Poland and finally again in the "Temple of the Izis". He remained a Freemason until the dissolution of the lodges in the Kingdom of Poland and achieved the status of Master (Class III).

In 1823 (or 1824) he married Augusta Siegmund and has lived on the Jasień estate in Lubochnia ever since . With Augusta he had three children: Rozalia, Stanisław and Teodor.

In 1827 he appeared for the last time in the comedy Koszyk wiśni ("Basket of Cherry"). Two years later he died at the age of 72. His grave is in the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.

career

Wojciech Bogusławski began his theater career in 1778 when he joined Ludwik Montbrum's troupe. He made his professional stage debut with an adaptation of Franciszek Bohomolec's cantata Nędza uszczęśliwiona (“Suffering turned into happiness”, also known as “happiness in misery”) to an opera with the music of Maciej Kamieński . In 1781 he appeared in Lemberg with the theater company of Agnieszka and Tomasz Truskolaski, but returned to Warsaw the following year, where he was engaged at the National Theater. In 1783 he took over the management of the theater and toured cities such as Dubno and Grodno. At the same time, with the support of King Stanislaus II. August Poniatowski (Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski), he founded his own theater in Poznan, which was quickly closed. In 1785 he founded another theater in Vilnius. In the same year he directed Franciszek Zabłocki's Fircyk w zalotach (“The Dandy's Advertisement”) and in 1786 the Polish premiere of Pierre Beaumarchais ' revolutionary comedy Figaro's Wedding . In January each year he gave demonstrations in Dubno; In 1789 he performed with his troupe in Lemberg (February) and Grodno (summer). In 1790, at the request of King Stanisław II August, he returned to Warsaw with a company from his theater to take over the management of the National Theater again.

His aim in this second term as director of the National Theater was to build a real national theater with an artistic, social and civic mission. Bogusławski saw the theater primarily as a school of morality and a platform for spreading national ideals. During the turbulent four-year Sejm , state reforms were the subject of numerous performances in the National Theater. As a supporter of the reformers, Bogusławski's repertoire covered the issues that he considered the most important for the Poles. During this time he also wrote for the theater. After staging Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz ' Powrót posla (“The Homecoming of the Landbote”), Poland's first political comedy, in 1791 , he wrote and staged its sequel with the title Dowód wdzięczności narodu (“Acknowledgment of the Nation”) and directed Józef Wybickis Szlachcicz Mieszczaninem ("The Noble Bourgeois"). He also wrote and directed Henryk Szosty na łowach ("Henry VI on the Hunt") in 1792 and his most famous work in 1794, Cud mniemany, Czyli krakowiacy i górale ("The presumed miracle or The Krakowites and the Mountain People"), Poland's first, Opera set to music by Jan Stefani , which was generally regarded as a call to resistance against the Third Partition of Poland , which is operated by neighboring countries . The play premiered on the eve of the Kościuszko uprising and was banned by censors after only three performances. However, the public immediately understood the political allusions it contained, and soon everyone in Warsaw's streets was singing passages from the opera. Bogusławski was supposed to be arrested for this production, but escaped - thanks to the intervention of Marshal of the Crown Fryderyk Józef Moszyński , as is believed.

After the suppression of the uprising, Bogusławski went to Lviv and took a large part of the costumes and props as well as the library of the theater with him. In Lemberg he founded and ran a Polish theater again, which existed until 1799. After negotiations with the censorship authorities, he staged The Krakowites and the Mountain People again in 1796 and in 1797 performed Shakespeare's Hamlet for the first time in Poland . In Lviv he also produced his own melodrama Iskahar, Król Guaxary ("Iskahar, King of Guaxara").

In 1799 Bogusławski returned to Warsaw and became director of the National Theater for the third time, until 1814. During this time he founded the Kalisz Theater in 1801 and performed in a number of other Polish cities, including Poznan, Łowicz, Cracow and Gdansk. He remained very popular with a large part of the audience, but critics increasingly accused him of expressing a "vulgar taste".

In 1811 he organized Poland's first drama school. In 1812 he wrote a textbook with the title Dramaturgia, czyli nauka sztuki szenicznej dla Szkoły Teatralnej ("The teaching of dramaturgy, ie the performing arts"). In 1814 he handed over the management of the National Theater to his son-in-law Ludwik Osiński, but remained connected to it. At first he performed there with his own troupe, but later also on other stages, including in Vilnius. Towards the end of his life he wrote and published Dzieie Teatru Narodowego (“History of the National Theater”), compiled and printed his Dzieła Dramatyczne (“Dramatic Works”).

meaning

Bogusławski introduced classical tragedies on the Polish stage, including a. by Shakespeare, whose works he performed on the basis of translations of various adaptations. Bogusławski also wrote several of his own pieces and translated, adapted, modified and adapted many French, German, English and Italian works to the Polish reality. In total, he wrote more than eighty tragedies, comedies, dramas and opera libretti. Bogusławski was initially an advocate of the classical French principles, but later focused on the moralization of German dramas, which for him were closer to real life. He staged works by Jean Racine , Molière , Voltaire , Pierre Beaumarchais, Denis Diderot , Friedrich Schiller and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing . However, he did not limit himself to a repertoire of high culture , but also staged melodramas and variety shows that attracted large audiences, as well as operas and ballets.

Bogusławski immediately set up a Polish stage wherever he was, which continued to function as independent institutions even after his departure. Actors who emerged from his “school” also founded new theaters, including Kazimierz Owsinski, Alojzy Żółkowski, Agnieszka and Tomasz Truskolaski, Franciszka Pierożyńska, Bonawentura Kudlicz, Józefa Ledóchowska, Ludwik Dmuszewski and many others.

As an actor he initially played lovers, but later had his greatest successes during his second term as director of the National Theater when he performed "Old Dominic" in Taczka Occiarza (his own adaptation of Louis-Sébastien Mercier's work La Brouette de Vinagrier ), " Ferdinand Kokiel ”in Heinrich VI. played on the hunt and "Bardos" in The Krakowites and the Mountain People . Although these roles were ordinary people, Bogusławski was just as convincing as with older characters, rulers or tyrants, such as King Lear in Shakespeare's tragedy, as “King Axur” in Axur , a drama set to music by Antonio Salieri in 1793, or as “Old Horace “In Pierre Corneilles Horace . As a director, Bogusławski worked successfully with designers and musicians such as the painters Antoni Smuglewicz, Jan Bogumił Plersch, Innocento Maraino and Antonio Scottio or with musicians such as Joseph Elsner and Karol Kurpiński . Bogusławski's most interesting performances were those in which he took on several roles - as their writer and director, and often as an actor in the lead role.

Bogusławski is considered to be the actual founder of the Polish national theater and is often referred to as the “father of Polish theater”.

Honors

  • The theater has been named Kalisz Bogusławski since 1936
  • In 1947 (5 złoty), 1965 (40 groszy), 2001 (1 złoty), 2015 (2.15 złoty) and 1978 (50 groszy) it was depicted on postage stamps of the Polish Post
  • In several Polish cities, streets, etc. a. in Białystok, Wroclaw, Bytom, Częstochowa, Gdansk, Kattowitz, Kielce, Cracow, Łódź, Lublin, Rybnik and Warsaw (ul. Bogusławskiego Wojciecha) , as well as squares, etc. a. in Kalisz, Posen and Wieruszów (plac Bogusławskiego Wojciecha) , or buildings such as the Bogusławski Palace in Warsaw named after Bogusławski
  • Wojciech Bogusławski is the main character in the novel Az iksek (Magvető Kiadó, Budapest 1981) and the comedy Az imposztor (Magvető Kiadó, Budapest 1987) by the Hungarian writer and playwright Spiró György

Works (selection)

  • Nędza uszczęśliwiona ("Suffering turned into happiness", also called "happiness in misery"). Opera in 2 acts by Maciej Kamieński , Polish, world premiere (world premiere) Warsaw 1778.
  • Taczka przedającego ocet i musztardę, czyli cnota w grubej łachmanie (“La Brouette de Vinagrier”, “The vinegar's wheelbarrow [or virtue in rags]”). Comedy by Louis-Sébastien Mercier in 3 acts, translated and adapted from the French, premiered October 23, 1790.
  • Dowód wdzięczności narodu (“ Proof of Thanks from the Nation”). Comedy in 2 acts by Wojciech Bogusławski for “the happy celebration of the throne of the Most Holy Lord” and as a complement to the comedy Return of the Member , Polish, premier Warsaw, September 15, 1791.
  • Henryk Szosty na łowach ("Henry VI on the Hunt"). Comedy in 3 acts by Wojciech Bogusławski, Polish, Premiere Warsaw, September 8th 1792.
  • Axur, król Ormus ("Axur, re d'Ormus", "Axur, King of Ormus"). Heroic Opera in 5 acts by Antonio Salieri , libretto: Pierre de Beaumarchais , translated from French into Italian and then into Polish, premiered in Warsaw, September 24th 1793.
  • Cud mniemany, czyli Krakowiacy i górale ("The presumed miracle or The Krakowites and the mountain people"). Opera in 4 (or 2 or 3) acts by Jan Stefani , libretto: Wojciech Bogusławski, Polish, world premiere probably Warsaw, March 1, 1794.
  • Hamlet, królewicz duński ("The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark", "Hamlet, Danish Prince"). Tragedy in 5 acts by William Shakespeare , translated from English into German by Christoph Martin Wieland / Johann Joachim Schröder and improved by Friedrich Ludwig Schröder , translated from German, UA Lemberg 1797.
  • Iskahar, król Guaxary ("Iskahar, King of Guaxara"). Melodrama in 3 acts by Joseph Elsner , Polish, premiered in Lemberg 1797.

literature

Web links

Commons : Wojciech Bogusławski  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wojciech Bogusławski in the Encyclopædia Britannica (English).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Monika Mokrzycka-Pokora: Wojciech Bogusławski. In: Culture.pl . September 2008 (English).
  3. ↑ a b c Wojciech Bogusławski in the Encyclopedia of Polish Theater (Encyklopedia Teatru Polskiego; Polish).
  4. ^ Grave of Wojciech Bogusławski at Find a Grave .
  5. ↑ Henryk Szósty na łowach ( "Henry VI. Hunting") at Polona the Polish National Library .
  6. ↑ Wojciech Bogusławski: Dzieie Teatru Narodowego  in  Text archive - Internet Archive .
  7. ↑ Wojtek z Roztoki on madrosciwojtka.blogspot.com.
  8. ↑ 1978 Polish postage stamp of Bogusławski at Find a Grave.
personal data
SURNAME Bogusławski, Wojciech
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bogusławski, Adalbert (German name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish actor, opera singer, writer, translator, theater director and founder of various theaters
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1757
PLACE OF BIRTH Glinno near Poznan
DATE OF DEATH July 23, 1829
Place of death Warsaw