Bernard Ładysz sings Skołuba‘s aria from “Straszny dwór“ by S. Moniuszko

The prominent Polish bas Bernard Ładysz was born in Vilnius, in 1922 (then it was under Polish rule and called Wilno). “Jestem szczęśliwy i dumny, że młodość przeżyłem w Wilnie; piękną młodość, jakiej życzyłbym wszystkim: śpiewy, zabawy, wódeczka, przyroda... Nie ma nic wspanialszego na świecie.” - says Ładysz. During the WWII, he took part in the antiGerman/Soviet resistance and after the war he was deported to the depth of the Soviet Union. He returned to Poland in 1947 where he completed his vocal studies that he had begun in Vilnius, in 1940-1941. Ładysz’s singing career started in the Polish Army Artistic Ensemble, then in 1950-1979 he was a soloist of Teatr Wielki in Warsaw. His international tours covered all continents, he took part in the recording of “Lucia di Lammermoore” (Columbia, 1959) together with Maria Callas. Ładysz sang roles in Faust, Don Giovanni, Don Carlos etc and also in canonical Polish operas Halka and Straszny dwór by S. Moniuszko (incidentally, the first one was written in Vilnius, in 1847).
Straszny dwór (The Haunted Manor) was first performed in the Teatr Wielki, Warsaw, on 28 September 1865, and received only two more performances before being banned by the censor of the tsar of Russian Empire which controlled Poland at the time. Skołuba, one of the characters of the opera, also appears in the poem “Pan Tadeusz” (1834) written by the Lithuanian-Polish author Adam Mickiewicz.
This video is illustrated with pictures from the 2012 year production of Straszny dwór in the new premises of Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Białystok, Poland (Białystok is a Polish town close to Lithuania).