Wacław Brzeziński (Baritone) (Warsaw 1878 – Lodz 1955)

He was a blacksmith, but after his voice had been discovered, he studied in Italy and made his debut there in 1904 at the Teatro del Corso in Bologna in ‘’Martha’’ of  Flotow. Additionally he studied singing under Witold Aleksandrowicz in Warsaw and joined in 1906 to the opera house of Lvov (Lwów). Already in 1908 he was to be heard as a guest in Palermo and in Bologna. In 1908 he was engaged by the opera house by Warsaw, where he debuted as Silvio in Leoncavallo’s ‘’Pagliacci’’. He remained the first baritone of this opera house for twenty years and was called the ‘’Polish Battistini’’. In the season 1911-12 he gave guest performances in opera houses in South Italy and in Sicily, above all as Rigoletto in ‘’Rigoletto’’ and as Figaro in ‘’Barbiere di Siviglia’’, also Brzeziński appeared in Moscow. In Warsaw he sang the whole Belcanto repertoire for baritone, in addition Polish opera works of Moniuszko. He was overexerted so strongly, that he became heart-suffering and had to give up his active singing career. Then he became a song pedagogue in Warsaw and was, in the end, up to his death a professor in the college of music of Lodz. So known singers like Jan Kiepura, Jerzy Czaplicki, Eugeniuz Mossakowski and Jerzy Garda belonged to his pupils.

Chronology of some appearances

1904 Bologna Teatro del Corso Martha  (Tristan)

1908 Warsaw Opera House Pagliacci (Silvio)

RECORDINGS FOR SALE

Syrena, Warszawa 1906

The haunted castle (Moniuszko): Polonaise 13499

Gramophone, Moscow 1910-07-13
O sole mio (di Capua) 222012 1054ae
Maria Mari (di Capua) 222013 1056ae

Gramophone, Warszawa 1911-08-28

Ernani (Verdi): O sommo Carlo 0222000 191af

Hamlet (Thomas): Le vin dissippe la tristesse 0222001 192af