Arno Franciszek, real name F. Kustosik, *12 March 1912 Vilnius, †18 July 1969 Starogard Gdański, Polish singer (tenor). From 1934, he studied singing at the conservatory in Łódź in the class of A. Comte-Wilgocka, from 1941 with Z. Fedyczkowska and A. Didur, and in 1945 he continued his studies at the State Higher School of Music in Łódź. After his debut at the Silesian Opera in 1945 (Turiddu in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana), he sang leading tenor roles on opera stages in Bytom (1945–47), Warsaw (1947, 1953–54, 1958–62), Poznań (1947–52, 1957/58), Wrocław (1955–58), Łódź (1963/64); and from 1962 to 1969 he was a soloist with the Warsaw Touring Opera. Among his numerous opera roles, the most notable were Radames in Verdi’s Aida, Don José in Bizet’s Carmen, Cavaradossi (Tosca) and Rodolfo (La Bohème) in Puccini’s operas, Grigory-Dmitry Samozvanets in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, and especially the role of Jontek in Moniuszko’s Halka, which he sang for many years after its sensational premiere at the opera in Poznań and his performance with the opera company in Moscow (1952).
