About the work
Opera in four acts by Stanisław Moniuszko with a libretto by Włodzimierz Wolski, based on a folk poem about an abandoned peasant woman. A two-act concert version was first performed in Vilnius on 1 January 1848; the definitive four-act version premiered at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw on 1 January 1858.
Plot
The peasant girl Halka loves the landowner Janusz and bears his child, but he becomes engaged to the noblewoman Zofia. Rejected by her lover and unsupported even by her own village, Halka ultimately drowns herself in the river.
Cultural significance
The 1858 Warsaw version is regarded as the birth of Polish national opera; Halka received around 150 performances during Moniuszko's lifetime alone and has remained continuously in the Polish repertoire ever since, though it stayed largely unknown outside Poland.