Belina-Skupiewski Stefan, *23 July 1885 Kyiv, †2 August 1962 Gdańsk, Polish opera singer (tenor) and teacher. After graduating from secondary school, he started studies at technical university, first in St Petersburgh and then in Karlsruhe, obtaining an engineer diploma in 1910. He took singing classes with J. Stückgold from 1907. As a soloist (baritone), he debuted as Tonio in Pagliacci in opera in St Gallen. In 1911–12, he was employed at the court opera in Munich and improved his vocal skills under the tutelage of the conductor F. Mottel. In 1912–15, he was a soloist at Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague. He succeeded there as the main performer in Parsifal and as Radames in Aida. During World War I, he was in Russia, working with the Kyiv opera and performing in other Russian cities. He was already performing tenor roles: Radames in Aida, Don José in Carmen, Herman in The Queen of Spades, Samson in Samson and Delilah, the Pretender in Boris Godunov, Rodolfo in La bohème, Duke in Rigoletto, Cavaradossi in Tosca and Lensky in Eugene Onegin. He spent the first two post-war seasons in Belgrade and Zagreb. In 1923, he moved to Warsaw, where he started his own opera school and performed as a guest on the local opera stage. He also sang in Lviv, Zagreb, Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, Paris, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro. In 1922, he performed in the world premiere of Stravinsky’s Mavra conducted by G. Fitelberg; in 1923, he sang in Tristan and Isolde conducted by A. Toscanini at La Scala in Milan; in 1927, he performed the title role in the world premiere of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex in the concert version at Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt in Paris. He gave up his stage career and 1928 and devoted himself to teaching. From 1928, he taught at the opera and at the T.O.N. Opera Studies in Warsaw; in 1938–39, he taught a singing class at the State Conservatory of Music. He spent the years of occupation in Warsaw, teaching singing at Staatliche Musikschule. He moved to Łódź in 1945 and started work at PWSM (State Higher School of Music). In 1946–53, he taught singing at PWSM in Katowice. At the same time, he was an executive (1946–49) and art director (1946–1953) of the Silesian Opera in Bytom. In 1953, he took over the vocal management of the Baltic Opera and Philharmonic in Gdańsk and the singing class at the PWSM in Sopot. His students included, among others, K. Szczepańska, A. Majak and W. Domieniecki.
Literature: M. Kunińska-Opacka, Belina-Skupiewski, “Ruch Muzyczny” 1962 no. 5; Belina-Skupiewski, Słownik Biograficzny Teatru Polskiego 1765–1965, PWN Warsaw 1973; Pół wieku Opery Śląskiej. Księga Jubileuszowa Teatru w latach 1945–2000, ed. Tadeusz Kijonka, Bytom 2000; Magdalena Dziadek, Od Szkoły Dramatycznej do Uniwersytetu. Dzieje wyższej uczelni w Warszawie 1810–2010. T. I 1810–1944, F. Chopina Music University, Warsaw 2011; https://marcinboguslawski.blogspot.com/2020/05/stefan-belina-skupiewski.html; https://docplayer.pl/46848342-Stefan-belina-skupiewski-pierwszy-krol-edyp.html.
