Ukrainian and Polish opera singer (dramatic tenor), vocal teacher, and music public figure. He performed at the La Scala Opera House, and in 1914-1919 - on the stages of Kyiv.
Biography.
Born in Kyiv to a Polish engineer's family. He graduated from the Lesnevych-Nosova Music and Drama School with a degree in piano. Then he studied at the Institute of Railway Engineers and the Higher Technical School in Karlsruhe (Germany). He studied singing privately in Karlsruhe and Monaco; he took lessons from Jacques Stückgold, and later in Munich he prepared a number of parts under the direction of F. Motl. He studied stage art and directing with H. Fuchs.
In 1908, he made his debut in the Swiss city of St. Gallen in the baritone role of Tonio (R. Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci"). Later he sang tenor roles in the opera houses of Leipzig (1909/10), Munich (Hofoper, 1910/11, 1912), Odesa (1910/11, intermission by M. F. Bahrov), Kharkiv, Katerynoslav (now Dnipro), Mykolaiv, Petrograd, Prague (German Royal Opera, 1912-1914), Innsbruck, Vienna, and Berlin. From 1914 he performed in the troupe of the City Theater in Kyiv,[2] and sang on the stages of Odesa, Katerynoslav, and Mykolaiv. In 1915, he toured the La Scala Theater (Milan). Until 1919, he continued to perform in Kyiv, where he also took part in concerts, rallies, and mass cultural events. At that time he lived at 8 Kostelna Street.
In 1920, he went abroad and continued to perform in theaters in Europe and America. Since 1923, at the invitation of A. Toscanini, he performed the roles of Tristan (Tristan and Isolde by Wagner), José (Carmen by Bizet) and the Impostor (Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky) at La Scala under the pseudonym Stefano Bielena. He toured in Barcelona (1922, Licey Theater, 1928), Paris (1922, Grand Opera Theater, 1927, Z. Bernard), Warsaw (Bolshoi Opera, 1923 and 1924), Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo and Montevideo (1924), Madrid (Teatro Real, 1925 and 1928), Lviv (1925), Trieste (Teatro Verdi, 1926), Belgrade and Zagreb (1927).
In 1928 he left the opera stage and moved to Poland. He taught singing at the Higher Schools of Music in Warsaw (1938-1939), Lodz (1945), Katowice and Sopot (since 1953 - professor). In 1953 he became the director of the Baltic Opera in Gdansk.
Repertoire.
The best parts of his repertoire are considered to be opera roles:
Tamino (The Magic Flute by W. A. Mozart)
Lionel (Martha, or the Richmond Market by F. Flotov)
Faust (one-act opera by Gounod)
Hoffmann (Tales of Hoffmann by J. Offenbach)
Eleazar (The Jewess, by J. F. Galévy)
Yontek (Pebbles by S. Moniuszko)
Nadir (The Pearl Seekers by G. Bizet)
Julien (Louise by G. Charpentier)
Turiddu (Rural Honor by P. Mascagni)
Canio (The Pagliacci by R. Leoncavallo)
Samson (Samson and Delilah by C. Saint-Saëns)
Duke (Rigoletto by G. Verdi)
Manrico (Il Trovatore by G. Verdi)
Alfred (La Traviata by G. Verdi)
Othello (one-man opera by G. Verdi)
Radames (Aida by G. Verdi)
Rudolph (La bohème by G. Puccini)
Mario Cavaradossi (Tosca by G. Puccini)
Herman (The Blame Game by P. Tchaikovsky)
Lensky (Eugene Onegin by P. Tchaikovsky)
Lohengrin (one-act opera by R. Wagner)
Siegmund ("Das Rheingold" by Wagner)
Tristan (Tristan und Isolde by R. Wagner)
in operas by C. M. Weber, J. Meyerbeer
