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Polish Operetta in 1908: Józef Redo & Bielska in Wesoła wdówka (The Merry Widow)

3,187 views · Published 20 November 2014 · 3:01 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2014 · Music

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Usta milczą, dusza śpiewa (Lippen schweigen, 's flüstern Geigen/ Hab mich lieb!) – Duet z operetki Fr. Lehara „Wesoła Wdówka” (Duet from the Operetta „Merry Widow”) – Józef Redo & Józefina Bielska, Artyści teatru „Nowości” z akomp. Orkiestry (Artists from the „Novelties” Theatre acc. by Orch.) DaCapo Records, c. 1908-10 (Polish)

NOTE: The misty autumnal aura puts me into a really nostalgic mood, as it seems… Perhaps that’s why I enjoy more and more digging out from the obscure pits of time the most ancient treasures. One of them in my collection is this recording from around 1908, that is shortly after Polish premiere of the famous Franz Lehar’s operetta “Merry Widow” ( - which was released in Warsaw in 1906, three years after the Viennese premiere). This acoustically recorded side immortalizes voices of two almost completely forgotten Warsaw operetta stars from early years of the 20th century (Warsaw Operetta was then named Teatr Nowości, meaning: The Novelties Theatre).

Józefina BIELSKA (ne Józefa Gwiżdż) was born in the end of the 19th century in the city of Lwów (now, in Western Ukraine)  where she completed the Conservatory and where she had her first engagement at the Opera as a choir girl. After a couple of rather accidental solo performances in various operettas, she was offered the freelance engagements in various operetta and farce theatres in Warsaw. In 1905 she was contracted at the renowned Theatre Nowości as the soprano solo singer. During the 1st World War she stayed in Russia, to return to Poland in 1918 and to perform again on stage of Nowości. However, for unknown reasons her name in the 1920s gradually disappears from programs of the Warsaw theatres and instead, it appears on provincial stages e.g. in Toruń, to entirely vanish in the 1930s. After the 2nd World War, Józefina Bielska found shelter in the House for Veteran Stage Artists in Skolimów near Warsaw, where she died in total oblivion in 1964. 

Józef REDO (b. 1876 in Wilanów near Warsaw, d. 1942 in Warsaw) – In the 1910-20s, he was a very popular Polish singer (baritone) and operetta director. He completed solid vocal education in the Warsaw Conservatory under the guidance of two famous singers Cezar Trombini and Tadeusz Mikulski. In 1890 he started performing on stages of various musical theatres in Poland as a choir member, until in 1897 he was contracted as solo tenor at Theatre Nowości in Warsaw. In beginning of the 20th century he belonged to the most popular Polish  Operetta singers. His phonogenic voice made him also very popular on records. His reputation as „king of tango” added to his popularity: for it was Józef Redo who in 1913, for the first time in Poland danced tango with Lucyna Messal, la  grande diva of the Polish Operetta,  on stage of Theatre Nowości in the Operetta “Targ na dziewczęta” (The Marriage Market). Through 1920s and 30s he continuously performed in the vadeuvilles and operettas, in 1925 he organized his own actors’ trouppe in Wilno, in the 1930s he also appeared in the movies: Jaśnie pan szofer (His Excellence, the Driver, 1935),  Wierna rzeka (The River of Faithfulness, 1936) and Ułan Księcia Józefa (The Prince Joseph’s Uhlan, 1937). He died during the 2nd World War in Warsaw, and today is remembered only by the historians of Polish theatre as well as collectors of the 78rpm records.

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