{"id":2600,"date":"2017-12-14T14:12:59","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T13:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atorod.pl\/?p=2600"},"modified":"2023-06-07T23:15:35","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T21:15:35","slug":"prince-de-monte-rotondo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/?p=2600","title":{"rendered":"Prince of Monte Rotondo"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is difficult to be a prophet in one\u2019s own country. And all the more difficult for cosmopolitan types who haven\u2019t wanted to, been allowed to or been able to put down roots anywhere. This is exactly how it was with J\u00f3zef Micha\u0142 Poniatowski, about whom one can read today that he was Prince de Monte Rotondo, of the noble clan of Cio\u0142ek and a close blood relative of his namesake, J\u00f3zef Poniatowski, the protagonist of a quintessentially Polish version of the Napoleon myth. The truth \u2013 as always \u2013 is more complicated.<\/p>\n

Our prince-composer was the illegitimate son of Lithuanian treasury official Stanis\u0142aw, who was an extraordinarily picturesque figure, a favorite of King Stanis\u0142aw August, a confidant of his lover Empress Catherine\u00a0II, a member of the Targowica Confederation, which over time began to be considered a symbol of treason. After the Partitions, Stanis\u0142aw Poniatowski settled first in Austria, and then in Rome, where he bought a splendid residence on the Via Flaminia. Opposite the villa lived the modest Cassandra Luci, the wife of a brutish shoemaker who abused her mercilessly. The thoughtful prince took the poor woman under his care. From this care, five illegitimate children came into the world. One of them was J\u00f3zef Micha\u0142 Ksawery, born in 1816. Three years later, Stanis\u0142aw gathered his informal family at his newly-acquired Monte Rotondo estate in Tuscany; in 1830, he finally married the widowed Cassandra; and in 1833, he died as the last aristocrat legally authorized to bear a Polish princely title.<\/p>\n

J\u00f3zef Micha\u0142 was acknowledged by his father already at age 6; for the legal sanction of his ancestry, however, he had to wait until 1847, when Leopold\u00a0II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, intervened on his behalf \u2013 in order to name him Prince of Monte Rotondo. Poniatowski spoke no Polish at all. He was a Tuscan state envoy to Brussels, London and Paris; in 1854, he became a French citizen and received the office of senator from the hands of Napoleon\u00a0III. After the emperor\u2019s dethronement, he traveled together with him into exile to Chislehurst, in the English country of Kent. The last ruler of France died in January 1873, which hastened Poniatowski\u2019s decision to emigrate to the United States. In June of the previous year, it had been written on the pages of The New York Times<\/em> that his pitiful situation was \u2018a striking example of the mutability of affairs\u2019. Unfortunately, the prince survived Napoleon by barely six months, and died prematurely at age\u00a057. He was laid to rest at the cemetery in Chislehurst, within the borders of today\u2019s London.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stanis\u0142aw\u2019s illegitimate son had been fascinated with music since childhood. He continues to be dogged by a reputation as a self-taught composer and homegrown singer, but the truth was completely different. Poniatowski trained under Fernando Zeccherini, maestro di cappella<\/em> at the cathedral and professor at the Academy in Florence; he was an esteemed tenor whose craft was compared with the artistry of Giovanni Battista Rubini, one of Bellini\u2019s favorite singers. He was the author of twelve operas which, while held in contempt by Berlioz, were praised by Rossini and Michele Carafa. Sir George Grove, initiator and editor of the legendary Grove\u2019s Dictionary of Music and Musicians<\/em>, wrote in an appendix to the dictionary\u2019s first edition that Poniatowski\u2019s music is tremendously theatrical and attests to a deep understanding of the potential and limitations of the human voice. Grove praised its originality and flickering spark of true genius \u2013 all the more enthusiastically that Poniatowski was also a person of exquisite manners and a favorite at the salons.<\/p>\n

His Mass in F<\/em>, composed in 1867 and dedicated to Lu\u00eds\u00a0I Bragan\u00e7a, King of Portugal, was discovered in the collections of the British Library and performed in Poland for the first time in Krak\u00f3w in 2011 at the initiative of the Association of Polish Music. The work is rooted in the spirit of Rossini\u2019s Petite messe solennelle<\/em>: it was written barely four years later and scored \u2013 as was the original version of the Petite messe<\/em> \u2013 for four soloists, small choir and organ, harmonium or piano. Intimate in expression (which Poniatowski additionally emphasized using the key of F\u00a0major, which expresses humility and resignation), with fragments of dazzling beauty (the soprano aria \u2018Et incarnatus\u2019<\/em>; the dialogue of the baritone with the choir in the \u2018Agnus Dei\u2019<\/em>; the virtuosic instrumental introductions to the individual movements, bringing to mind the \u0153uvre<\/em> of Chopin and Liszt), betrays both influences of operatic bel canto<\/em> style, and attachment to the Italian tradition of vocal musica da chiesa<\/em> (the polyphonic texture of the final, majestic \u2018Amen\u2019 movement). Despite its charm and lightness, Poniatowski\u2019s composition is a typical jewel of mature age: a passionate musical confession of faith in God and the power of love.<\/p>\n

It is astounding that from the pen of the same composer came the opera Pierre de M\u00e9dicis<\/em> (<\/em>which in its time scored a real triumph in Paris), the lyrical and expressive Mass in F<\/em>, and The Yeoman\u2019s Wedding Song<\/em>, a ballad popular in England that was good-naturedly mocked by P.\u00a0G. Wodehouse himself in his humoresques. It seems that the uncertain national identity of the Prince of Monte Rotondo also made its mark on his \u0153uvre<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Translated by: Karol Thornton-Remiszewski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is difficult to be a prophet in one\u2019s own country. And all the more difficult for cosmopolitan types who haven\u2019t wanted to, been allowed to or been able to put down roots anywhere. This is exactly how it was with J\u00f3zef Micha\u0142 Poniatowski, about whom one can read today that he was Prince de … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-mangusta","4":"post-2600","6":"format-standard","7":"category-miscellanea","8":"category-posts-in-english"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2600"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7420,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions\/7420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}