Archaeology of the Score. On Restoring the Author’s Version of The Legend of the Baltic

The article presents a complex history of the opera The Legend of the Baltic to a libretto of Waleria Szalay-Groele which enjoyed great popularity already during Feliks Nowowiejski’s lifetime. The author argues that subsequent versions of the opera, made by the composer since its successful world premiere in Poznań in 1924, were, at least partially, a result of unfavorable criticism, not devoid of nationalistic traits, expressed or inspired by a respected ethnomusicologist Łucjan Kamieński, his adversary from the time of Berlin studies under Max Bruch. On the other hand, the new edition of the final scene, allegedly prepared in 1941, ignoring a precise combination of leitmotifs of the two main characters – Doman and Bogna, which became a pillar of the new version of the score popular during the communist period, was, in fact, a mystification made by the sons of Nowowiejski who decided to bring their father’s work closer to the ideals of socialist realism. A final, author’s version of The Legend of the Baltic was then prepared personally by Nowowiejski for the inauguration of the 1939/1940 season at Grand Theatre in Poznań; however, due to the outbreak of war, the score was not performed during his lifetime. It was only in 2017 that the score was reconstructed by Marcin Gmys and published as part of the series “Works of Felix Nowowiejski” by the Polish Music Publishing House. This edition of the opera, when compared with its inauthentic post-war version, restores not only the original, final scene but also, among other elements, the original arrangement of three acts of 1938 with Act II being a compact ballet scene taking place at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. It is worth emphasizing that after World War II, for many years, the music for Act II in a shortened, purely instrumental version gained great popularity as an alleged overture to Act I of the opera.