POLISH OPERA IN LONDON 10th anniversary!!

This year musicians from many countries joined a team of Polish singers to perfom two one act operas by Moniuszko in a celebration of 10 years of the Poliah Opera in London. Beginning with Moniuszko's one act opera Verbum Nobile (2008), the Polish Social and Cultural Association POSK has presented a cycle of Moniuszko operas during the last 11 years including Halka (2014), Straszny Dwor (2015), Hrabina (2016), Pariah (2017), Fliss (2018) and Jawnuta (2019) as well as a 200th Birthday Gala featuring fragments of unkown outside Poland operatic and symphonic music.

Soloists have included Polish opera singers resident in UK Marcin Gesla, Lukasz Biela, Przemyslaw Baranek, Violetta Gawara, Milena Dobrzynska, Piotr Lempa, Kamil Bien as well as guests from Polish opera houses Bydgoszcz, Lodz, Warszawa, Wroclaw and Bytom including sopranos Agnieszka Adamczak, Monika Swiostek, mezzo Olga Marroszek, tenors Rafal Bartminski, Lukasz Gaj, Tadeusz Szlenkier and Maciej Komandera. Music staff pianists have included Marek Ruszczynski, Wolfgang Fritsch, William Fielding among others.

Choruses built up from different Polish choirs in London as well as traditional dances by London based Polish ensembles as well as the participation of a Waltham Forest Ballet School have made the events highly entertaining, dynamic and memorable leading to great reviews in Opera, Opera Now and the Stage magazines as well as Polish magazines Goniec, Cooltura, Tydzien Polski with brilliant media support by Tomasz Furmanek and dramatic photography by Ryszard Szydlo among others.

Productions have featured stage directors Richard Fawkes, Jarek Zawartko and Felix Tarnawski and conductors Alexander Walker and Stephen Ellery with scenery by Mike Leopold and costumes by Beata Barton-Chapple and lighting by Zubair Dhalla.

During Covid lockdown 2021 we were invited by Conductors in Isolation to give a talk about the operatic music of Moniuszko.

If you are interested in any aspect of our work or would like to join, recommend someone or become a supporter of our work please contact either myself, Stephen Ellery

27B Poppleton Rd, London, E11 1LP
0044 7845778100/0044 203 566 7119
ellery007@hotmail.com

or

Polish Social and Cultural Association Ltd
238-246 King Street
London
W6 0RF