Henryk Opieński (1870–1942) in the known and unknown correspondence of Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer and Stanisław Estreicher. Subjects not limited to music

Małgorzata Sieradz

Abstract

Among the legacy of the composer, conductor and musicologist Henryk Opieński held in the Fondation Archivum Helveto-Polonicum in Freiburg, we find a vast collection of correspondence, including more than a thousand letters to his fiancée and first wife, Anna Krzymuska, unique letters from Mieczysław Karłowicz, and letters from his friends, the painter and stained-glass artist Józef Mehoffer and the law historian and bibliographer Stanisław Estreicher; his correspondence with another former classmate, Stanisław Wyspiański, was published in the 1990s, following editorial work that started in the 1920s (when Opieński forwarded the letters to the editors). Henryk Opieński, possibly the least remembered of the four friends, was no less gifted than the other former pupils of Cracow’s Larisch Elementary School and St Anne’s Grammar School, nor was his contribution to Polish culture less significant. During their youth, the four spent every minute of their free time together. We can learn a great deal about their friendship from the pages of Mehoffer’s diary, Wyspiański’s letters, including to Estreicher and Opieński, and Estreicher’s commemorative writings. Stanisław Wyspiański was the first of the four to pass away, in 1907, but they would continue to remember him, both in private and on official occasions. The other three died during the Second World War or shortly afterwards: Stanisław Estreicher in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1939, Henryk Opieński in Morges in 1942, and Józef Mehoffer in Wadowice in 1946. Details of the final years of each of them are revealed in the correspondence of the next generation: the young Zygmunt and Karol Estreicher (Stanisław’s son and nephew), and Józef ’s son Zbigniew. Their accounts are attached as a supplement to the article and the edition of the letters.