Son of an official of the Austrian monarchy he
began study the law at the University of Krakow, then trained under J. Teksla
in Lodz and made his debut in 1881 under the pseudonym Barski at the Theater of
Krakow as Frick in J. Offenbach’s Operette ‘’Jeanne qui pleure
et Jean qui rit’’. Afterwards he guested as an operetta baritone in Lvov
and Posen. Then went to further studies to Italy (pupil of Sangiovanni in
Milan) and Vienna (pupil of Salvi), where retrained as tenor. He began his
stage career in 1882 at German Theater of Prague under the name ‘’Brandt’’,
however, sang on December of the same year, now under his right name, at Lviv
Theatre of Opera and Ballet as Faust and remained engaged till 1884. In the 1884-1885 season he
appeared at Bellevue Theater in Warsaw, then again till 1886 at Lviv
Theatre of Opera and Ballet. Now he continued his career at the German-speaking
space and in the 1886-1887 season sang at Theater of Linz / Danube, in the 1887-1888
season at Opera House of Cologne, where he sang his first Otello by G.
Verdi. In the 1888-1889 season he belonged to the ensemble of the Municipal Theater in Graz. In 1888 he appeared at Opera in Frankfurt a. M. again as Otello.
During the 1889-1901 seasons here he added to his repertoire also Faust, Lohengrin
and Tannhäuser and 1889 he sang in a gala performance before the German emperor
the part of Walther von Stolzing in ‘’Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’’. Although
his great success was in operas of R. Wagner, but he made guest appearances
also as Raoul in ‘’Gli Ugonotti’’ of G. Meyerbeer, Dalibor in the opera of the
same name by B. Smetana, Harun in ‘’Djamileh’’ of G. Bizet, Rinaldo in ‘’Armide’’of Gluck, Pollione in ‘’Norma’’, Edgardo in ‘’Lucia
di Lammermoor’’, Alfredo in ‘’La Traviata’’, Manrico in ‘’Il Trovatore’’, Radames in
’’Aida’’, Don José in ‘’Carmen’’, Matthias in ‘’Evangelimann’’ of W. Kienzl, Jean
in ‘’Il Profeta’’ by G. Meyerbeer, Jontek in S. Moniuszko's ‘’Halka’’ and Otello of G. Verdi, his special star role. In 1902 he sang at the Metropolitan Opera in
New York the title part in the American première of the opera ‘’Manru’’ by I.
Paderewski. In the 1901-02 season he took over at this opera house also Lohengrin
and Siegfried in ‘’Götterdämmerung’’. Other guest performances included
appearances at Court Operas in Vienna (1890), Dresden (1890), Munich (1898), Covent
Garden (1899), Milan (1896), Amsterdam (1898), Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Mannheim
and Cologne. Till 1910 he still appeared in Poland, primarily in Krakow and Lviv.
In the 1905-1908 seasons he sang at the Opera House in Krakow and then worked
as professor at the conservatoire in this town. He translated several operas of
Richard Wagner into the Polish language and exercised on the music life of his
native country big influence. His niece Eva Bandrowska-Turska (1897-1981) had a
successful career as soprano.
Chronology of some appearances
1881 Krakow Theater
1882 Prague German Theater
1882-1884 Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet
1884-1885 Warsaw Bellevue Theater
1886 Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet
1886-1887 Linz Theater
1887-1888 Cologne Opera House
1888 Frankfurt a. M. Opera
1888-1889 Graz Municipal Theater
1889-1901 Frankfurt a. M. Opera
1902 New York Metropolitan Opera
RECORDING FOR SALE
Mapleson cylinder, New York 1903
Manru (Paderewski): Trio with Scheff and Mühlmann
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