Stefan Belina-Skupiewski
In RA format
Born 23 July 1885 in Kyiv, died 2 August 1962 in Gdańsk. Polish singer (tenor), pedagogue. Studied music in Kyiv, Karlsruhe
and Munich (with Felix Mottl), also finished the polytechnic university in Karlsruhe. Was a famous singer in Europe from 1908 to 1928;
he sang, among others, Tristan at La Scala under Toscanini.
From 1928 he concentrated on teaching. He taught voice at the conservatories in Warsaw, Łódż, Katowice and Sopot.
He was the director of the Silesian State Opera in Bytom (the opera house started by Adam Didur) from 1946 to 1953.
From 1953 he was the director of the Baltic State Opera and Philharmonic in Gdańsk. He was awarded the National Prize.
Debut as Tonio in Pagliacci (Leoncavallo). Igor Stravinsky chose him to create the title role in his opera Oedipus
rex.
Source: Encyklopedia muzyczna PWM. Część biograficzna, tom I, Kraków 1979, translated by Imogen Norcroft
Belina-Skupiewski made his (baritone) debut in Sankt Gallen in Switzerland, went on to sing in Germany
(in Leipzig, among others), and had his breakthrough when he got a contract, now as a tenor, in Munich in 1910. He sang on many
European and South American stages: Prague, Plzeň, České Budějovice, Innsbruck, Vienna (not at the Hofoper,
though), Berlin (where?), Regensburg, Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Ekaterinoslav/Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Lviv, Warsaw, St. Petersburg (where?),
Belgrade, Zagreb, Trieste, Milano (Tristan and José at La Scala, 1923), Paris (with Diaghilev's company at the Opéra,
1922, as well as the Oedipus rex world premiere at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt, 30 May 1927), Barcelona, Madrid,
Lisbon, Buenos Aires (where?), Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo.
His most important role was German, and he sang a lot of heldentenor parts like Tristan, Éléazar, Samson, Siegmund,
Grigorij and so on – but also Tamino, Hoffmann, Alfredo or Gounod's Faust.
Reference 1; reference 2: Kutsch & Riemens
I wish to thank Richard J Venezia for the recording.
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