O historii Opery Robotniczej w Krakowie (1954–1957)
On the History of Cracow’s Workers’ Opera (1954–1957)

Summary/Abstract: Stanisław Drabik initiated and organised two unique opera companies, which later sank for many years into oblivion. In 1947–1949 Drabik ran the Workers’ Opera in Wrocław, which prepared a production of Stanisław Moniuszko’s The Raftsman in 1948. He returned to this idea in 1954 in Kraków, where a second opera house of this kind was set up under his direction. Following two years of rehearsals, in July 1956 Kraków’s Workers’ Opera staged Stanisław Moniuszko’s Halka at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre. Officially the cast was to consist of musically gifted workers from Nowa Huta’s steelworks, but its actual make-up proved far removed from such declarations. Drabik’s ultimate aim was to organise and direct a professional Cracow-based opera. He took advantage of the Stalinist propagandist call to disseminate art among workers in order to obtain funding and organisational support for his project from state institutions. The political transformations following the Polish October (1956), de-Stalinisation and the political thaw in the artistic scene effectively thwarted his plans. The Workers’ Opera lost its discursive and institutional protective umbrella. The premiere of Halka was very badly received by critics, who wrote about the profanation of a national opera, about extremely poor level of music performance and acting, as well as misappropriation of funds. Part of this criticism came from Drabik’s competitors, who, like him, strove to set up a professional opera in Kraków. The crew and director’s struggle to save their opera company, which started more than a year after the premiere, failed, and the Workers’ Opera fell into complete oblivion.

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