Konrad Zawiłowski – A Doctor of Musicology as Soloist at the Wiener Hofoper: The Stage Career
Michał Piekarski
Institute for the History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5045-6100
Abstract
Konrad Zawiłowski (b. 1880 in Kraków, d. 1952 in Berlin) was notably the first Pole who became a musicologist, graduating from the University of Vienna in 1902. More spectacular, however, was his artistic career. Having made his debut at Warsaw Opera in 1903, he sang at the Municipal Theatre in Lwów (now Lviv), and later was for three seasons (1904–07) the main baritone at Vienna’s Hofoper, for which he was engaged by Gustav Mahler. In the same period, he made a name for himself as the first Pole ever to become a soloist at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus (1904).
Now forgotten both as a musicologist and artist, Zawiłowski has an exceptionally brief and laconic entry in Encyklopedia Muzyczna PWM / PWM Edition’s Music Encyclopaedia (with no bibliography). Though his doctoral dissertation was dedicated to Stanisław Moniuszko, he was not mentioned in the context of the Moniuszko Year (2019). There was absolutely no information about him, either, at the 2019 Viennese exhibition for the 150th anniversary of Wiener Staatsoper (previously Hofoper). Only a few mentions of the artist can be found in some individual texts. This paper aims to revive his memory as a singer known in Polish opera houses as well as many theatres in Austria and Germany. His choice of musicological studies and a professional singer’s career is examined. Research into Zawiłowski’s biography and career has been conducted here on the basis of materials kept at the Archiv der Universität Wien as well as, most importantly, a number of press titles from Vienna, Berlin, Warsaw, Lwów, and Kraków, theatrical posters, and the Wiener Staatsoper online database. Most of the information provided by these sources has remained completely unknown to date.
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Authors
Michał PiekarskiInstitute for the History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5045-6100
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