At the Grand Theatre in Warsaw, the beginning of 1861 brought the premiere of "Verbum Nobile", a one-act comic opera by Stanislaw Moniuszko with a libretto by Jan Checinski. The work was received with great enthusiasm -- not only by the packed auditorium. Paradoxically, it was this operatic 'novella' that drew unanimous praise from the critics, even the most demanding among them. Other operatic works by Moniuszko, written on a grander scale, could not count on such universal critical acclaim.
Among those to express their admiration for Verbum Nobile at that time was the notoriously stern critic Jozef Sikorski, editor of Ruch Muzyczny (the only professional music periodical in the Kingdom of Poland). Previously, this critic had expressed many reservations with regard to Halka (1858) and The Countess(1860), Moniuszko operas with librettos by Wlodzimierz Wolski. His review of Verbum nobile also echoes the accusations levelled at Wolski: "nothing so accomplished as this opera has been seen on our stage for a long time [...]. Admittedly, it contains many beautiful moments comprehensible to us Poles alone; but that is one more attribute --an attribute that embellishes both the text and the music from beginning to end -- and it is called national character."
All the recordings of Verbum nobile made to date have been based on the orchestral score prepared by Grzegorz Fitelberg and published by PWM Edition in 1953. It is high time, perhaps, to turn to the authentic performance material of this opera and perform it in the way Moniuszko composed it and presented it under his baton to the audience of the Grand Theatre on 1 January 1861. The first step in that direction comes with this world premiere performance on period instruments.
This recording is released as part of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute's "Concerts Frozen in Time" series (Muzyka zatrzymana w czasie) and was recorded during the 15th International Music Festival 'Chopin and his Europe' in the 'Teatr Wielki' Polish National Opera in Warsaw, 12-14 August 2021.
