Moniuszko: Halka (4 Act Italian Version) – Fabio Biondi

   in Opera Now (Apr, 2019)
Two complete opera releases represent national ideals and flavour. Polish composer Moniuszko’s work is enjoying something of a vogue, with The Haunted Manor having enjoyed successful recent revival in Warsaw and Halka due for a major outing courtesy of the Theater an der Wien next season. Not that well-known outside its native land, Moniuszko’s music is mid-19th-century Romantic, with confident vocal lines, large choral effects and a strong Polish flavour, particularly in his use of dance rhythms. Halka (1854) is recorded live here in an Italian version, for reasons unexplained; a shame, as its whole raison d’être is its Polishness. Fabio Biondi’s conducting brings out the colours and zest of the …