The Warsaw Chamber Opera was founded
in 1961 by Stefan Sutkowski, who has served as
its Managing and Artistic Director ever since. The company's inaugural
production was G.B.Pergolesi's La serva padrona (4 September 1961). At
present, the Warsaw Chamber Opera company consists of 2 directors, 2 designers,
7 conductors, over 75 soloists, and small-size symphony orchestras (the
Warsaw Sinfonietta and the Orchestra of Warsaw Chamber Opera). It also
has the period-instruments ensemble Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense,
a Mime Group, the 40-strong Chamber Choir and the Choir specializing in
Old Orthodox Music.
The Warsaw Chamber Opera is pursuing
a diverse activity. Its repertoire spans a wide variety of musical styles
and genres: from medieval mystery plays to the operas of the Baroque and
Classical periods, 18th century pantomimes, the operas by Rossini and Donizetti,
as well as works by contemporary composers, several of which were commissioned
by the company. The Warsaw Chamber Opera ensembles also give regular concerts
featuring chamber, oratorio and symphonic music of various epochs.
In 1984 the Warsaw Chamber Opera
established the Research and Documentation Centre of Early Polish Music.
It deals with the research, publication, performance and recording of newly-discovered
works by Polish composers. The music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has long
occupied a prominent place in the company's repertoire. A series of successful
productions encouraged the decision to mark the 200th anniversary of the
composer's death with the 1st Mozart Festival (15 June- 26 July 1991).
Its programme included all of Mozart's stage works (26 productions). The
Mozart Festival has been organised on an annual basis since then. Every
edition of the event (15 June - 26 July) comprises Mozart complete stage
output and a selection of his chamber, symphonic, and vocal-instrumental
works. The Warsaw Chamber Opera is the only company in the world to have
Mozart's entire operatic output in its permanent repertoire. Small wonder
that this unprecedented achievement won the Warsaw's company wide international
recognition.
Another major artistic project realised
by Stefan Sutkowski and the Warsaw Chamber Opera is the Baroque Opera Festival,
held annually since 1993. The event enriched the company's repertoire with
works by J.Peri, C.Monteverdi, H.Purcell, J.Blow, F.Caccini and J.B.Lully.
Special attention was paid to Monteverdi's output, eventually giving rise
to, in the autumn of 1995, to the Claudio Monteverdi Festival, another
annual fixture in the Warsaw Chamber Opera calendar. Within its framework,
the company has produced all of Monteverdi's extant stage works, including
three full-length operas L'Orfeo, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione
di Poppea.
The Pro Musica Camerata Foundation
is another noteworthy initiative of the Warsaw Chamber Opera. Founded in
1992, it publishes critical editions of Polish music manuscripts from the
Middle Ages to the 19th century. This is of much benefit for both musicologists
and performers. The Foundation also produces CDs of the masterpieces of
early Polish music (particularly the newly-discovered pieces), performed
by the Warsaw Chamber Opera ensembles.
Since 1972 the Warsaw Chamber Opera
has been promoting its attainments through foreign tours. It has performed
in 16 European countries, as well as Japan, the United States and Canada,
including numerous prestigious international festivals.
Stefan SUTKOWSKI
Artistic director
Stefan Sutkowski was born in 1932
in Warsaw. He graduated from the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw
(diploma in oboe, 1955) and the University of Warsaw (musicology). He was
associated for twenty years (1954-74) with the National Philharmonic of
Warsaw as oboist and, from 1961, also as director of its Chamber Music
Stage, which subsequently developed into the Warsaw Chamber Opera. In 1971-81
he was Deputy President and then, for two terms of office, President of
the Association of Polish Musicians SPAM.
Stefan Sutkowski's musical and musicologic
interests have always focused on the discovery and presentation of instrumental
works and operas by Polish and foreign composers which had been unjustly
forgotten or considered lost. Many of these newly-discovered works have
been performed and recorded for radio and on Polish and foreign labels.
In 1957 Stefan Sutkowski established
the early music ensemble Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense, the first
ensemble of its kind in Poland. In 1961 it was incorporated into the above-mentioned
Chamber Music Stage, which lay the foundations for the Warsaw Chamber Opera.
Stefan Sutkowski has been its Artistic Director since the very beginning.
The Chamber Music Stage was inaugurated on 12 September 1961 with a programme
of Italian music, comprised of Albinoni's Oboe Concerto (with Sutkowski
as soloist) and G.B.Pergolesi's opera La serva padrona. The current repertoire
of the Warsaw Chamber Opera focuses on the Baroque and Classical periods,
but it also includes medieval liturgical drama and works by contemporary
composers.
In his activity as Director of the
Warsaw Chamber Opera, Stefan Sutkowski gives prominence to Italian music,
notably the entire stage output of Monteverdi and Mozart. After several
years of preparations, a Mozart Festival was inaugurated in 1991 (15 June-26
July) to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer's death. The programme
of this continuing event comprises oratorios, symphonic, chamber and organ
works, and, first and foremost, Mozart's complete stage output (26 works).
The Warsaw Chamber Opera is the only company in the world to have Mozart's
entire stage output in its repertoire. This unprecedented achievement won
the Warsaw company international recognition. It was highlighted by Stefan
Sutkowski's decoration with the Austrian Cross of Honour in Science and
the Arts, First Class, conferred on 13 December 1991 by the President of
the Republic of Austria. The success of the 1st Mozart Festival prompted
the decision to make the event an annual fixture. It is worth adding that
over the past few years the Warsaw Chamber Opera has presented Mozart's
operas, as well as symphonic and choral music on foreign tours and at prestigious
festivals in many European countries.
The Warsaw Company contributed to
the world-wide celebrations of the 350th anniversary of Claudio Monteverdi's
death in 1993 by organising the Baroque Opera Festival, which also developed
into an annual event. In 1996 the company produced all of Monteverdi's
stage works. 1997 saw the 1st Claudio Monteverdi Festival, another annual
fixture in the Warsaw Chamber Opera calendar, devoted entirely to Monteverdi's
stage and concert output. This marks the crowning of the efforts of Stefan
Sutkowski, who has worked since 1984 on the establishment of ensembles
specialising in the performance of the music of the Baroque and early Classical
periods. The Baroque Opera and Monteverdi Festivals have become greatly
popular with audiences, which include many foreign visitors.
Stefan Sutkowski's passion for research
led to the establishment in 1984 of the Research and Documentation Centre
of Early Polish Music. Many works discovered and prepared for performance
by the Centre have had their premieres during the annual Ad Hymnos ad Cantus
Early Music Festivals (launched in 1980). The musical materials of many
of these works are being made available to performers and musicologists
by the Pro Musica Camerata Edition, established in 1992 on Sutkowski's
initiative. It is part of the Pro Musica Camerata Foundation. The performances
and publications include numerous pieces by Italian composers
working at the Polish Royal court, such as Claudio Merula, Marco Scacchi,
Franciszek Lilius (Gil), Marcello di Capua, and Giovanni Paisiello.
Many works by Italian composers
have also been recorded for radio and TV and on various labels. For almost
two decades, the Warsaw Chamber Opera has also promoted Rossini, whose
music is particularly close to the style of performance nurtured by the
company.
The largest project of Stefan Sutkowski
and his ensemble were the celebrations of 400 years of opera as a genre,
which were held between 6 October 2000 and 28 October 2001. 57 stage works
from different epochs (including 7 premieres) ? ranging from Euridice by
Jacopo Peri, the first opera for which complete music survives, through
the contemporary operas commissioned by the WCO were presented on this
ìfestival of festivalsî. In the framework of this event, the WCO
gave about 130 performances at its Theatre in Warsaw.
The latest important project of Stefan
Sutkowski is An Ode to Europe, a festival of music from the 25 countries
of a United Europe at the Warsaw Chamber Opera, which runs from 3 May 2004
to 3 May 2005. It consists of several operatic festivals and concerts of
oratorial, symphonic and chamber music (total 83 performances and 53 concerts).
Decades of research and documentation
into the music by Polish composers and by foreign composers active in Poland,
as well as close collaboration with early music specialists have given
Stefan Sutkowski fresh insights into the rich heritage of Polish musical
culture and its contribution to the European culture. This led to the establishment,
in 1992, of the Sutkowski Edition. A private venture, it has embarked on
a 10-volume publication History of Polish Music, which is to be supplemented
by several in-depth studies of specific subjects. The entire project is
to be brought out by the end of 2006.
Stefan Sutkowski is holder of several
Polish distinctions, including the Commander's Cross (1992) and the Commander's
Cross with Star (1996) of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Big Cross of
the Order of Polonia Restituta (2001). In 1999 he was decorated with Commander's
Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy. In 2002 he was awarded an honorary
doctorate by the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw.
Warsaw, 2005
Repertory
| Arnauld Serge
Baird Tadeusz
Bernardini (di Capua) Marcello
Bloch Augustyn
Bloch Augustyn
Blow John
Bucci Mark
Caccini Francesca
Campra André
Cimadoro Giovanni Battista |
La Tarasque (1985)
Love Sonnets, Songs of the Trouveres
(1963)
Le nozze di Amore e Psiche (1971,
1986)
The Voice of Silence (1977)
The Looking-glass (1975)
Venus and Adonis (1993)
Sweet Betsy from Pike (1985)
La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola
d'Alcina (1996)
Tancrède (2000)
Pigmalion (1978) |
Cimarosa Domenico
Cimarosa Domenico
Cimarosa Domenico
von Dittersdorf Karl Ditters
Donizetti Gaetano
Elsner Jozef
Elsner Jozef
Galuppi Baldassare
Handel George Frederick
Handel George Frederick
Handel George Frederick
Handel George Frederick |
Il maestro di cappella (1968)
Il matrimonio segreto (1983,
1995)
L'impresario in angustie (1980)
Doctor und Apotheker (1984)
Don Pasquale (1973, 1993)
Echo in the Wood (1975)
Abraham's Sacrifice (1997)
L'amante di tutte (1995)
Arianna (1997)
Idomeneo (1998)
Messiah (1994)
Rinaldo (2001) |
Hasse Johann Adolf
Hasse Johann Adolf
Haydn Joseph
Haydn Joseph
Haydn Joseph
Januszkiewicz Raphael
Johnson Tom |
Don Tabarano e Scintilla (1980,
1999)
Zenobia (1999)
La Canterina (1979)
Die Erwählung eines Kapellmeisters
(1977)
Lo speziale (1963, 1974, 1977,
1981, 1983)
Parnassus Reformed,
or Apollo the Legislator (1969,
1972)
The Four Note Opera (1983) |
Kamienski Maciej
Kamienski Maciej
Kamienski Maciej
Kamienski Maciej |
Cantata on the unveiling of the
statue of King Jan III (1983)
Misery Made Happy (1976, 1997)
The Nightingale, or A Husband
for Kate and Hanna (1976)
Court Warrant Settled by Jest
(1975) |
| Krauze Zygmunt
Kuprinski Karol
Kuprinski Karol
Kuprinski Karol
Landi Stefano
Lully Jean-Baptiste
Majer Kajetan
Maksymiuk Jerzy
Maksymiuk Jerzy
Matuszczak Bernadetta
Matuszczak Bernadetta
Matuszczak Bernadetta
Menotti Gian Carlo
Merula Tarquinio
Moniuszko Stanislaw |
Balthazar (2001)
Kalmora (1976)
Mars and Flora (1981)
The Charlatan, or Raising the
Dead (1964, 1996)
Il Sant'Alessio (1985, 1993, 1998)
Alceste (1997)
The Yellow Night-cap (1988)
In medio vero omnium residet sol
(1973)
Beyond Words (1976)
Diary of a Madman (1978)
Prometheus (1986)
Quo vadis (1996)
The Telephone (1963)
Satiro e Corisca, Canzoni e balli
(1995, 1998)
The Carmagnole, or From Saxony
to the Forest (1972) |
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus |
Idomeneo (1991)
Lucio Silla (1991)
Mitridate, rè di Ponto
(1991)
Le nozze di Figaro (1984, 1993)
Pantalone e Colombina (1986,
1997)
Il rè pastore (1990)
Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots
(1990)
Il sogno di Scipione (1990)
Lo sposo deluso, Der Schauspieldirektor
(1990)
L'oca del Cairo (1990)
Thamos, Die Maurerfreude (1991)
Laut verkünde unsre Freude
(1991)
Zaide (1988)
Die Zauberflöte (1987) |
| Offenbach Jacques |
3 opérettes : Les Deux
Aveugles, Le Mariage aux lanternes,
Monsieur Choufleuri (1976) |
| Orlandini Giuseppe Maria
Pasqua Giuseppe
Paisiello Giovanni
Paisiello Giovanni
Paisiello Giovanni
Pergolesi Giovanni Battista
Pergolesi Giovanni Battista
Pergolesi Giovanni Battista
Peri Jacopo
Prokofiev Sergei
Purcell Henry
Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolay |
The Player (1975)
La servante maîtresse (1978)
Il barbiere di Siviglia (1978)
Le due contesse (1982)
La serva padrona (1971, 1977,
1990)
Il geloso schernito (1978)
Il maestro di musica (1975, 1988)
La serva padrona (1961, 1977,
1986, 1988)
Euridice (1989, 2000)
Peter and the Wolf (1984)
Dido and Aeneas (1995)
Mozart and Salieri (1972) |
Rossini Gioacchino
Rossini Gioacchino
Rossini Gioacchino
Rossini Gioacchino
Rossini Gioacchino
Rossini Gioacchino
Rossini Gioacchino |
Il barbiere di Siviglia (1989)
La cambiale di matrimonio (1998)
La Cenerentola (1997)
La gazza ladra (2001)
L'Italiana in Algeri (1998)
Il signor Bruschino (1979)
Il Turco in Italia (1999) |
| Rudzinski Zbigniew
Saint-Saëns Camille
Scarlatti Alessandro |
Antigone (2001)
Carnaval of the Animals (1984)
Scene buffe - Gl'inganni felici,
Dafni
et Il pastor di Corinto (1981,
1998) |
| Scarlatti Domenico
Sikora Elzbieta
Stefani Jan, Boguslawski Wijciech
Stuppner Hubert
Swen-Czachorowski Stanislaw,
and Bloch Augustyn |
Tetide in Sciro (1979, 2000)
Face to the Sky, Ariadne (1979)
The Miracle, or Cracovians and
Highlanders (1999)
Totentanz (1979)
With a Star in the Wonder-barn
(1975) |
| Szymanowski Karol
Telemann Georg Philipp
Telemann Georg Philipp
Vecchi Orazio |
Mandragora (1963)
Don Quichotte (1986)
Pimpinone (1966)
Amfiparnaso (2000) |
