The Academy's jury of musicologists, critics, journalists and musicians honoured this year's winners at a gala in late June at the Théâtre du Chatelet, under the patronage of Pierre Bergé, honorary president of the Paris National Opera. Established in 1958, the Academy aims to distinguish the most accomplished recordings of vocal music.
The Prix Joseph Losey - Orphée d'Or for best lyrical audiovisual initiative (l’Orphée de la meilleure initiative lyrique audiovisuelle) went to Jan Ignacy Paderewski's Manru in the 2006 production directed by Laco Adamik with the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz under the musical supervision of Maciej Figas, with set design by Milan David and choreography by Janina Nierobska. The production commemorated the 65th anniversary of its composer's death, and 50 years of the Bydgoszcz Opera. The recording, released in 2011 by Poland's DUX label, features soloists Janusz Ratajczak, Wioletta Chodowicz, Leszek Skrla, Monika Ledzion, Barbara Krahel, Łukasz Goliński and Jacek Greszta, as well as violinist Krzysztof Jakowicz.
Manru is the only opera written by Paderewski. It tells the story of a gypsy fellow who marries a Polish woman, taking on symbolic reference to culture clashes throughout Poland and Europe. Its three acts are set to the libretto by Alfred Nossig, based on Józef Ignacy Kraszewski novel Chata za wsią / A Hut Beyond the Village. The premiere production took place in Dresden on the 29th of May 1901 and traveled Europe's capitals then graced the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City in 1902. Manru's return in the new millenium in the Opera Nova production in Bydgoszcz has gained acclaim as a universal performance facing human intolerance and prejudice.
The second Polish opera production to receive a prize at the ceremony is Elżbieta Sikora's Madame Curie, presented with the Prix Charles Münch - Orphée du prestige lyrique de l’Europe. The opera, produced by the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk on commission from the city of Gdańsk, premiered in November 2011 in Paris at UNESCO Hall, then moved to its home stage at Baltic Opera. The production features 10 soloists, a 30-member choir and a dancer, with the full symphony orchestra enhanced with saxophone, accordion, electric guitars and electronically generated harmonies. Madame Curie was also distinguished by the Association of Polish Composers this year for Sikora's "compositional brilliance", with the award presentation later in 2013 at the Warsaw Autumn Contemporary Music Festival.
The libretto of Madame Curie is inspired by the life of two-time Nobel Prize-winner, whose career achievements led to breakthroughs in science and technology. The opera also focuses on Skłodowska's private life- particularly her working and personal life in France. The performance recalls less-known threads of Sklodowska's life, such as her fascination with the U.S. dancer Loie Fuller, appearing in Sikora's opera in the form of dancing white butterfly. As the composer explains,
I set myself the task to show Maria Sklodowska-Curie not only as the person we know of from textbooks, a scientist who worked day and night, looking for new discoveries, but that she was simply a human being who also walked on the ground with emotions, and science in all its forms. I wanted to show her from this side – as a human individual and as a woman [...] Her story is a true operatic scenario, so I didn’t have to look for much or add, only interpret the facts of her life.
Anna Mikolajczyk, who performs the lead role in the production, sang at the Orphée d'Or awards gala in Paris. Elżbieta Sikora and Danuta Grochowska, vice director of the Baltic Opera, were awarded the prize for the DVD on the DUX label, by Tomasz Orłowski, the Polish ambassador to France.
Editor: Agnes Monod-Gayraud
Source: Polish Institute in Paris, own sources
01.07.2013