Introducing Polish Barihunk Paweł Konik in DNO's Monteverdi

Paweł Konik in Monteverdi's Madrigals (right)

Polish barihunk Pawel Konik is taking on double duty in the Dutch National Opera's produciton of Madrigals,  an amalgam of works by Monteverdi. He performs as Tancredi in the section taken from Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and on of the Infernal Spirits taken from Il ballo delle ingrate. As Tancredi he is suite in 77 pounds (35 kilos) of armor.

Only three full-length works from Monteverdi’s opera oeuvre have survived. From Arianna, only the Lamento has survived, in which the Cretan princess sings of her desire for death, as her lover Theseus has left her. Il ballo delle Ingrate and Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda are both part of Madrigals, Book 8. In these works, too, death is the central theme. In a dance, women who have died show what the living can expect if they resist the arts of Cupid. Il combattimento shows the futility of every war or battle. In a duel, Tancredi kills a supposed enemy, who turns out to be his lover Clorinda.

The show also includes hunkentenor Nicólas Maraziótis, bass-barihunk Nathanaël Tavernier as Plutone and is conducted by Christophe Rousset with his orchestra Les Talens Lyriques. You can watch the trailer for the show on YouTube.

Paweł Konik and Nicólas Maraziótis

The performances will take place in the Scenery Atelier of Dutch National Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam-Zuidoost.  The set is dominated by a steel artwork by Jannis Kounellis.There are three remaining performances on May 16, 17 and 19, and then it travels to the U.K.s Brighton Festival for a single performance on May 21.

Konik was born in Cieszyn, Poland and studied at the at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music. He made his debut in January 2013 as Shvochniev in Shostakovich's  The Gamblers, for which won "The Best Singer's Debut Award" from the Jan Kiepura’s Drama Music Awards. He is a member of the Young Artists Program at the Polish National Opera's Opera Academy at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw.

His operatic experience includes performances of title roles in Mozart's  Le nozze di Figaro, Massenets Don Quichotte,, Bottom in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Betto in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Nikitich Pristav in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Henri Perrin in Madame Curie by Elżbieta Sikora and Zbigniew in Moniuszko’s Haunted Manor.

On May 28th, Paweł Konik returns to his hometown of Cieszyn to sing Bach’s Ich habe genug BWV 82 in a concert in memory of Polish conductor Karol Stryja.

Łukasz Karauda in Wexford's Riders to the Sea

Łukasz Karauda

Polish barihunk Łukasz Karauda is performing the role of Bartley in Ralph Vaughan Williams Riders to the Sea at the Wexford Festival. The opera opens today and is sold out. There are additional performances on October 31st, November 3th and 6th. 

Riders to the Sea is one of Ralph Vaughan Williams' greatest masterpieces, but it has often struggled to find a home in the repertory because of its brevity

Composed in 1927 but not premiered until December 1937, Riders to the Sea is based almost verbatim on J.M. Synge’s early twentieth­century drama of the same name. Music of eerie, elegiac beauty illuminates the theme of elemental and watery death as experienced by the Aran Islanders, west of Galway.

The central role is that of Maurya, who by the end loses her husband and six sons to the sea, experiencing a kind of cathartic release when her last son’s death leaves her with nothing more to fear. Realising that the sea can hurt her no longer, Maurya concludes, ‘No man at all can be living for ever, and we must be satisfied’. All this is evoked by Vaughan Williams in music that captures the flinty harshness of the islands and fierce marine brutality. But the theme of mankind against nature –taken to extremes in his Sinfonia Antarctica – always brought out the best in the composer.

Karauda sings the role of Bartley, the youngest of Maurya's six sons, who becomes the sole support of the household after her other sons are lost at sea. He earns income by riding horses into the sea to the steamer anchored far offshore, so that they can be sold at the mainland fair. Preoccupied with practical exigencies, he ignores his mother’s request that he not go to sea. He nevertheless asks God’s blessing on the family and rides off on the red mare, leading the pony.

His mother foretells his death and omits the giving of a blessing to him, an omission considered bad luck. When his mother subsequently stands on the path trying in vain to say the blessing, he gives her his blessing. Bartley is knocked into the sea by his pony, becoming the sixth and final son of Maurya's to die at sea.

Łukasz Karauda is new to this site. He graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and is a recipient of a Bryn Terfel Foundation award. He was also tutored by fellow Polish barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien.

He won the first prize in the 5th Kurpinski Polish National Voice Competition in Wloszakowice, Poland and the ‘Most Promising Singer’ at the 2015 London Welsh ‘Young Welsh Singer of the Year’ competition.

At the Royal Welsh College of Music he sang the title role in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and the title role in their production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, as well as Steward in Dove's Flight, Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, Dancaïre and Morales, Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen at the St Magnus Festival in Scotland.

Reader submission: Maciej Idziorek

Miljenko Turk as Don Giovanni and Maciej Idziorek as Leporello (photo Dorit Gätjen)

A reader in Germany alerted us to Maciej Idziorek, a Polish born barihunk singing Leporello in the current run of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Volkstheater Rostock.

He started his career singing with the Children's Opera at the Vienna State Opera after moving to the Austrian capital as a child. He went on to complete his studies at the Vienna Conservatory. After graduation he sang at the Theater an der Wien, where he performed in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and I, Schickaneder. In 2012, he sang the title role in Dirk D'Ase's tango opera Azrael.

Since August 2014, he has been been a member of the ensemble at the Volkstheater Rostock.

Performances of Don Giovanni run from December 27 through January 21. Tickets are available online. Upcoming roles for him include Sparbüchsenbill in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (The Rise & Fall of the City of Mahagonny) by Kurt Weill and Silvano in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.

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Reader Submission: Şzymon Komasa

Polish Barihunk Şzymon Komasa

Our latest reader submission is Şzymon Komasa, who took part in a master class at Julliard on October 4th with Joyce DiDonato. He caught the attention of our reader during the live online webstream of the master class. Renee Fleming and Eric Owens will be featured in upcoming master classes, so check the school's online schedule.

Şzymon Komasa was born in Poznań and studied at the Academy of Music in Łódź, from which he
graduated with honors in 2009 in both cello and vocal studies. Komasa comes from a very artistic family. His mother Gina was a singer, his father Wieslaw is a famous Polish actor, his brother Jan is a director, his sister Mary is a lead singer of a band and his youngest sister Sophie is a stylist. Jan Komasa directed him in Sala samobójców (Suicide Room), which was also written by his brother. 

He studied opera at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London before becoming a student of Edith Wiens at Juilliard’s Artist Diploma program in Opera Studies.. In 2011, he represented Poland in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, but fell ill and had to withdraw before the finals. 

Şzymon Komasa

He has won awards in international singing competitions, including the Best Wagner Singer at the 7th Annual Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition in Dublin in January of this year. He previously took third prize at the Ada Sari Vocal Art Competition in Nowy Sącz in Poland, first prize at the Puccini International Singing Competition in Verona and first prize at the Halina Halska-Fijałkowska Vocal Competition in Wrocław. 

Şzymon's opera performances include Slook in Rossini's La cambiale di matrimonio, Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, all at Teatr Wielki in Łódź, and Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème at Teatro Filharmonico in Verona. His repertoire also includes Mityukha Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.  This summer, he sang Albert in Halevy's La Juive in Dresden.

You can watch him HERE during an appearance on a Polish morning TV show.