Didur, Olga
Didur Adam, *24 December 1874 or 1875 Wola Sękowa near Sanok, †7 January 1946 Katowice, Polish opera singer (bass) and teacher. In the years 1892–1895 he studied in the solo singing class of V. Vysotsky at the Conservatoire at Galician Music Society in Lviv. From 1995, he continued his singing studies under Francesco Emmerich in Milan. At the same year, he debuted in Pinerollo near Turyn in La forza del destino and also gave guest performances in other cities in Italy, Alexandria, and Cairo. In 1897, he performed at Milan’s La Scala, singing the Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under the direction of A. Toscanini. After gaining his recognition, he was appointed by the Teatro alla Scala (1895–1899). During the summer months, he travelled with the ensemble of this theatre conducted by Toscanini to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires to give guest performances. From 1898–1899 he sang at the T. Vittorio Emanuele in Messina. From the autumn of 1899 until the end of the 1902/1903 season, he was a member of the ensemble of the Warsaw Opera. He sang in, e.g., Les Huguenots, La bohème, Aida, Il trovatore, Un ballo in maschera, Faust, Eugene Onegin, Tannhäuser and Polish operas by S. Moniuszko, Z. Noskowski, W. Żeleński, L. Grossmann and A. Münchheimer. In 1903 he signed a contract with Milan’s La Scala, where he performed until 1907. He sang in Tannhäuser, Das Rheingold, Rigoletto, The Marriage of Figaro, The Marksman, Fra Diavolo, Manon, The Queen of Spades, La Juive, among others. In 1908 he was invited by A. Toscanini to join the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. He was associated with this stage until 1933. He has appeared in several American premieres of European operas, including The Bartered Bride, The Queen of Spades (under the baton of G. Mahler), Eugene Onegin, Le Donne by Wolf-Ferrari, Quo vadis by Nougues, Borys Godunow, Prince Igor and in world premieres, among others The Girl of the West by Puccini and Królewskie dzieci by Humperdinck. In the summer of each year, he visited Europe, including Warsaw, Lviv, Poznan, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv, Prague, Budapest, Paris, Genoa, Vienna, London, Madrid, and Barcelona. During the years of the First World War, he was active in the American-Polish Relief Committee, and in the 1920s, he produced several Polish plays in New York, including Moniuszko’s Halka at the Manhattan Opera (1924). In 1932, he ended his stage career and returned to Poland. He took a solo singing class and an at the K. Szymanowski’s opera class at the Conservatory in Lviv. During the 1938––1939 season, he was artistic and musical director of the Lviv Opera, and in 1939, he signed on as artistic director of the Polish National Opera. He did not take up his post due to the outbreak of war. He stayed in Warsaw to the end of the occupation. He gave private lessons and performed in the Gastronomia venue. After the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising, he went to Krakow, where he prepared the premiere of Halka (December 1944). In 1945, he arrived in Silesia. He organised an opera house in Katowice (after the artists of the former Lviv Opera moved to Bytom); he also was appointed its first director. He also took up a singing class at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice. In 1945/1946 he held the position of Dean of the Vocal Department at the university. Three of A. Didur’s five daughters: Ewa, Olga (married name Wiktor) and Maria (Mary Didur-Załuska) became opera singers. His students included Marian Nowakowski, Zofia Czepielówna, Z. Pręgowski (Alba), L. Finze, Z. Kotulak (Calma), A. Kowalski, E. Zaryćka, I, Małaniuk. Since 1979, the Silesian Opera has hosted the A. Didur Opera Singers’ Competition, and since 1989, the A. Didur Opera Music Festival has been taking place in Sanok.
Literature: A. Didur, Słownik Biograficzny Teatru Polskiego 1765–1965, PWN Warszawa 1973; W. Panek, Adam Didur i wokaliści polscy na scenach operowych świata przełomu XIX/XX wieku, Wydawnictwo Polskie w Wołominie 2010.