Moniuszko made his way to Paris via Germany in the middle of a heatwave, a journey which not only took a month, but emptied his pockets also.

He was not impressed once he arrived either, stating that the Parisian theatres were “splendid, but very untidily maintained; the foyers are extremely narrow, [...] The singers at Le grand opera are the worst, but at the Opera Comique they are exquisite [...] The orchestra and choirs are excellent, but lower standard than in Germany.”

These events allegedly gave rise to the legend of how the composer hid in a hotel in Rue de Gramont, closed all the shutters, lit the candelabra, set up his portable desk, and completed the score of his new opera The Raftsman, to a libretto by Stanisław Bogusławski, in a mere four days. But in reality, if he indeed wrote anything in Paris, it was no more than a general outline of his ‘one-act piece from the Vistula valley’.

All this notwithstanding, the opera does bear the mark of haste. Moniuszko was eager to exploit the recent success of his Halka; especially so since General Ignacy Abramowicz, President of Warsaw’s Government Theatres, was planning to entrust the post of opera conductor to Moniuszko. All the same, Moniuszko’s one-act opera drew the admiration of the audience on the night of the premiere (24 September 1858) and was received rather favourably by the contemporary critics.

In this 1962 studio recording we hear Halina Słonicka (soloist of Warsaw Opera, the later Teatr Wielki), Bernard Ładysz (one of history’s greatest operatic voices in Poland), the excellent tenor Bogdan Paprocki, one of our best baritones Andrzej Hiolski, and the bass Antoni Majak, accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra under Zdzisław Górzyński – a conductor who, like no other, could bring out the best in Moniuszko’s operas. This recording is a genuine jewel from the Polskie Nagrania archive.