Ogiński, Michał Kazimierz (EN)

Ogiński Michał Kazimierz, *1728 Warsaw, †1800 Warsaw, composer and writer, Lithuanian Grand Hetman. In the 1750s, he made his first journey across Europe (Dresden, Vienna, Paris). In May 1772, he travelled to Paris for the second time via Vienna; in 1774, he returned to Poland. In 1782, he undertook another journey (Aachen, Brussels, The Hague, Amsterdam, London, Berlin). Artistically gifted, he received a thorough, comprehensive education, including musical education. He played the violin excellently; there is information about Michał Kazimierz Ogiński’s studies with G.B. Viotti in Paris; presumably, these were not regular studies, but lessons at the master class level. He also played the harp and clarinet excellently, which he gave evidence of many times, including in Moscow in 1763–64 and in 1765 in his palace in Warsaw, in the presence of King Stanisław August Poniatowski; his work on improving the harp’s pedal mechanism was used by S. Érard; Michał Kazimierz Ogiński was also the author of the entry on the harp in the Great French Encyclopédie edited by D. Diderot (1751–72).

In 1761, Michał Kazimierz Ogiński married Aleksandra née Czartoryska and came into the possession of Słonim estate, where he stayed in 1764–84 with breaks. In addition to the impressive princely residence, there was a printing house and a textile factory, and in the palace, there were magnificent library collections. In the 1770s and 1780s, a theatre was built for 2,000 spectators, with a huge stage and machinery for the elaborate decorations of opera seria, where performances took place almost every day. In the times of Michał Kazimierz Ogiński, Słonim experienced years of glory. There was a band presenting a very high performing level, and two opera ensembles, Italian and Polish. In the years of its greatest development (1776–80), the vocal-instrumental band had 53 members (in 1792 only 12). The orchestra was conducted successively by Durand, Dobrzański, A. Kuźmicki, J. Sokołowski and J. Pauli, and in 1776–78 the bandmaster was A. Danesi, previously the bandmaster at the court of the Russian archbishop L. Sheptytsky in Lviv; many excellent instrumentalists were active in the musical ensemble, including, in 1776–78, the valued Italian violinist Cipriano Cormier, known as Cypriani, the cellist J.G. Fleischmann, the castrato G. Campagnucci (Compagnucci) also moved to the opera ensemble from the Warsaw theatre; the cast was supplemented by a ballet ensemble. Musicians and dancers were educated in the school founded by Michał Kazimierz Ogiński, which, in the second half of the 1780s, was directed by the famous ballet master, F. Szlancowski. Young people from the surrounding villages were trained for the ballet and orchestra, while more talented students could continue their education abroad (e.g. Teodor Kowal, an outstanding violinist and bandmaster, later known under the name Ferrari); the dance ensemble was so good that in 1788, it was placed at the king’s disposal.

According to A. Żórawska-Witkowska, the repertoire of the Słonim theatre was basically not influenced by the Warsaw stage, although the Ogiński library collections included Italian and French operas presented in the capital. Mainly operas to Metastasio’s librettos were performed (including The Shepherd King), and among Polish works – probably operas by Michał Kazimierz Ogiński (his authorship is not documented; only in the case of the opera Pola Elizejskie there is no doubt). The dramatic repertoire of the theatre in Słonim is less well known; it is known that plays by Voltaire were performed there, probably in the translation by Michał Kazimierz Ogiński or the Court Marshal, I. Lachnicki. In addition, the Słonim theatre had its branch in Siedlce, where the melodrama Cyganie (Gypsies) (music by Michał Kazimierz Ogiński?, performed in 1786) and Matka Spartanka by W. Lessel (1791) were performed to librettos by F.D. Kniaźnin with arias, duets and choruses. The librettos were didactic and moralising in nature, with a trivial plot and jovial humour (Filozof zmieniony, Kondycje stanów) or conveyed instructive messages, using personifications of Nature, Reason or Beauty (Mocy świata). The symphonic chamber repertoire was dominated by compositions by Mannheim and Viennese composers.

Over time, his involvement in political affairs contributed to a significant reduction in Michał Kazimierz Ogiński’s wealth, and the events of the 1760s and 1770s forced him to sell part of his estate (including Nieborów). Gullibility, vanity, and extravagance, as sources report, contributed to the fact that in 1791–92, Michał Kazimierz Ogiński was forced to transfer all his estates in Lithuania to Michał Kleofas Ogiński for large sums necessary to cover debts. In the last years of his life, Michał Kazimierz Ogiński lived in Helenów, where he maintained a modest instrumental and vocal ensemble; most members of the former Słonim ensemble remained in the Lithuanian Ogiński estates in Telekhany. The decree of Tsarina Catherine II of 1795 erased the existence of many magnate theatres, including the one in Słonim; the palace and theatre were destroyed, and the library collections and musical items were lost, so it is difficult to assess the value of the otherwise unknown repertoire performed only there (including, above all, works by Michał Kazimierz Ogiński himself).

The first known stage work of Michał Kazimierz Ogiński was ballet music written for the anniversary of the coronation of Stanisław August Poniatowski and performed on 24 November 1765 in Warsaw. It is known that from his early youth, he composed mazurkas and polonaises, some of which are still attributed to Michał Kleofas Ogiński. The collections of polonaises and songs given in the list of compositions are undoubtedly among Michał Kazimierz Ogiński’s legacy.

Michał Kazimierz Ogiński’s polonaises belong stylistically to the period of Polish pre-romanticism; the composer introduces the metrorhythmics of Polish folk dances and Polish elements typical of folk music, e.g. lyrism or characteristic melody. The songs are dominated by lyrical and reflective texts, as well as didactic and moralising ones, but also idylls and satires typical of the poetry of this period. Michał Kazimierz Ogiński’s modest literary legacy includes mainly translations and adaptations of works by Montesquieu, Boccaccio, A.L. Thomas, and E. Young; the collection Bajki i nie bajki contains, among others, occasional poems and songs; as Żórawska-Witkowska believes, Michał Kazimierz Ogiński’s works do not go beyond the literary conventionalism of the era.

Literature: L. Simon Repertuar teatrów w Polsce za czasów Stanisława Augusta. Uwagi na marginesie dzieła Ludwika Bernackiego, “Pamiętnik Literacki” 1929 book 3; A. Miller Teatr polski i muzyka na Litwie (1745–1865), Vilnius 1936; A. Ciechanowiecki Michał Kazimierz Oginski und sein Musenhof zu Slonim, Cologna 1961, Belarusan ed. Michał Kazimir Aginski i jaho „sjadziba muzau u Słonimie”, transl. by W Sakałouski, Minsk 1993; J. Prosnak Opera polska w teatrach magnackich XVIII wieku, “Muzyka” 1965 no. 1; B. Król-Kaczorowska Teatr dawnej Polski. Budynki, dekoracje, kostiumy, Warsaw 1971; L. Bernacki Teatr, dramat i muzyka za Stanisława Augusta, Lviv 1925, reprint vol. 2 Warsaw1975; K. Wierzbicka-Michalska Teatr w Polsce w XVIII wieku, Warsaw 1977; A. Nowak-Romanowicz Twórczość komediowa Michała Kazimierza Ogińskiego i Katarzyny II, “Muzyka” 1990 no. 2; A. Nowak-Romanowicz Klasycyzm 1750–1830, «Historia Muzyki Polskiej», vol. 4, Warsaw 1995; A. Żórawska-Witkowska Muzyka na dworze i w teatrze Stanisława Augusta, 1995.