Czesław Gałka

A graduate of the Katowice Academy of Music, where he studied under Stanisława Marciniak-Gowarzewska, and a prize winner of vocal competitions in Krynica (1st Prize) and Bytom (2nd Prize). He also attended Pekka Saalom’s course on the interpretation of oratorio music held in Bayreuth and Paweł Lisicjan’s singing course in Weimar. While still a student he took part in the Feste Medicee Festival in Florence and made his operatic debut in 1982 as Zbigniew in The Haunted Manor at Bytom Opera. He was a soloist with the Śląsk Opera for two years and in 1985 joined the Polish National Opera. His extensive repertoire includes the parts of Rudolfo in Bellini’s La Sonnambula, Bryndas in Stefani’s Krakovians and Mountain Folk, Elviro in Handel’s Xerxes, Stolnik and Dziemba in Moniuszko’s Halka, Zbigniew and Skołuba in his The Haunted Manor and Serwacy in his Verbum nobile, Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Pimen in Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Halban in Ponchielli’s The Lithuanians, Colline in Puccini’s La Boheme, Horn in Verdi’s Masked Ball, Banco in his Macbeth, Montano in his Othello, Count Ceprano in his Rigoletto, Doctor Grenvil in his La Traviata and Ferrando in his Il Trovatore. He also sung the part of the Mother in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, and Antonio in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, Perichaud in Puccini’s La Rondine. His repertoire includes oratorios and cantatas and he has performed works by Bach, Haydn, Handel and Mozart as well as sang and recorded songs by Moniuszko, Karłowicz, Schumann and Schubert.