The opera gala featuring the great tenor Piotr Beczała is one of the most interesting events of the new season at the NFM. This charismatic and appreciated singer will present an attractive selection of arias written in the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century.

Among them, there are fragments of works by Stanisław Moniuszko. We will listen to the well-known and liked arias: Stefan's aria from The Haunted Manor, and an aria of Jontek full of longing for his beloved Halka, that is Szumią jodły na gór szczycie. The colourful and dynamic Highlander Dances from Halka will also be presented.

An opera gala cannot do without Italian repertoire. We will hear Giuseppe Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco Overture, not very popular, but nonetheless interesting. Other featured compositions are excerpts from veristic operas: Manon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini and Cavaleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni. Composers representing this trend took up moral themes, introduced commoners to their work, and fashioned the beautiful singing characteristic of Italian opera at times like dramatic recitative. Andrea Chénier by Umberto Giordano is another opera of the veristic period. Piotr Beczała will perform the aria Come un bel dì di maggio. The aria crowning the concert Mamma, quel vino è generoso, sung by Turiddu just before his death in a duel, comes from Cavaleria rusticana.