Quotable: King Roger and being from Poland
A recent Tribune article published on 11-13-22 discussed the opera King Roger, which is unusual because it's in Polish. Many more common operas are in Italian or German, I'd say; this opera is hardly produced because of the language. The group putting it on is the Chicago Opera Theater, and they're working with the Lira Ensemble, which is described as "Chicago's Polish performing arts company." The COT's assistant conductor happened to grow up in a Polish-speaking household and ended up recording himself reading the entire opera as well as creating a phonetic guide to help with pronunciation.
"Polish is notorious for its dense consonant clusters, which are unlike anything we have in the English language," [Michael] Pecak said. "I approach (coaching Polish) in much the same way I do when coaching the more standard classical-operatic languages like Italian or French. But it's one thing to know how to pronounce the words, and it's another thing to sing them."
(It's funny, because while I was bilingual at one point, those consonant clusters and the unusual pronunciations are what keep me from going back and studying the language.)
The Lira Ensemble's founder concurred: "I've heard 'King Roger' live once before, in Poland, and I'd say it's a medium difficult piece. But it's very difficult if you don't speak Polish," [Lucyna Migala] agreed. Later in the article, Lira Ensemble is described as "not only the only American performing arts company that specializes in Polish arts and dance; it is likely the oldest continuously run ethnic arts organization in the Midwest." I was kind of surprised to hear that; I'm not familiar with the group.
But it was the last paragraph that really hit me, because it reminds me of my father's family. Migala discussed where many Polish Chicagoans came from: "Chicago is the city that most people from southern Poland came to, and most people that came were of peasant origin. I'm very proud to be of peasant origin." I know dad's family, or at least his mom, came from there, and she always seemed to me to be a peasant woman, so it was interesting to hear how this was described. It's no surprised my family ended up in Chicago, and now Chicago is bringing more of Poland here. Thanks to writer Hannah Edgar for discussing this.
"Polish is notorious for its dense consonant clusters, which are unlike anything we have in the English language," [Michael] Pecak said. "I approach (coaching Polish) in much the same way I do when coaching the more standard classical-operatic languages like Italian or French. But it's one thing to know how to pronounce the words, and it's another thing to sing them."
(It's funny, because while I was bilingual at one point, those consonant clusters and the unusual pronunciations are what keep me from going back and studying the language.)
The Lira Ensemble's founder concurred: "I've heard 'King Roger' live once before, in Poland, and I'd say it's a medium difficult piece. But it's very difficult if you don't speak Polish," [Lucyna Migala] agreed. Later in the article, Lira Ensemble is described as "not only the only American performing arts company that specializes in Polish arts and dance; it is likely the oldest continuously run ethnic arts organization in the Midwest." I was kind of surprised to hear that; I'm not familiar with the group.
But it was the last paragraph that really hit me, because it reminds me of my father's family. Migala discussed where many Polish Chicagoans came from: "Chicago is the city that most people from southern Poland came to, and most people that came were of peasant origin. I'm very proud to be of peasant origin." I know dad's family, or at least his mom, came from there, and she always seemed to me to be a peasant woman, so it was interesting to hear how this was described. It's no surprised my family ended up in Chicago, and now Chicago is bringing more of Poland here. Thanks to writer Hannah Edgar for discussing this.