Polish bass Andrzej Saciuk appears tonight in the Grand Opera in Łódź as Skołuba in Stanisław Moniuszko’s The Haunted Manor bidding farewell to the stage fifty seven years after his debut in the same role and in the same opera house.

Born in 1933, Saciuk initially wanted to be an actor and gained a diploma from the famous Film School in Łódź.

His vocal talent, however, skyrocketed him soon to a fine career in the opera. In addition to singing major roles with Polish companies (Godunov in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust,  Konchak in Borodin’s Prince Igor and Don Basilio in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville), he has worked closely with opera companies in Austria, France and Germany. In the 1970s he was a soloist with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Duesseldorf,  which honoured him in 1998 with the prestigious title of Kammersanger.

Andrzej Saciuk also developed a career on the concert platform.  He sang in Carnegie Hall alongside  Renata Tebaldi and Placido Domingo. (mk)