Bolesław Pawlus

Born into a poor family, he had to earn money early on. His singing in a church choir led to voice lessons, and eventually to a new profession: tenor. He started his career at the Krakow Philharmonic in 1953; his stage debut, in Krakow as well, took place on March 17th, 1958 as Jontek in Halka – a role he was to sing about 1500 times throughout his career. He stayed at the Krakow opera theater until 1967, though interrupted by two years of further studies in Italy (1964–66, at both La Scala and the Accademia di S. Cecilia). From 1967 to 1988, he sang at the Silesian Opera in Bytom, again interrupted by five years in Essen (1970–75), from where he made several guest appearances throughout Western and Northern Europe. From 1972 to 1977, he was regularly also at the Wielki in Warsaw.

His most famous roles were Jontek and Canio (he had tremendous success in a new Warsaw production of Pagliacci in 1977). Other than that, he sang Pollione, German, Chénier, Manrico, Don Carlo, Puccini's des Grieux, Duca, Turiddu, Cavaradossi, Hoffmann, Samson, Otello, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Stolzing, Siegmund, both Siegfrieds, Stefan (Straszny dwór), Pinkerton, Rinuccio, Don José, Calaf, Radames or Gérald. He bid farewell to the stage on June 18th, 1988, as Jontek, the role of his debut.

Reference 1, reference 2, reference 3, reference 4
Source for the recordings: the Bolesław Pawlus website