Bardini Aleksander

Aleksander Bardini - Personal data
Date of birth: 17th November 1913
Place of birth: Łódź
Date of death: 30th July 1995
Place of death: Warszawa
Occupation: director, actor
Related towns: Vilnius, Lviv, Katowice

Bardini Aleksander (17 November 1913, Łódź – 30 July 1995, Warsaw) – director, actor.

He studied acting and directing under L. Schiller and A. Zelwerowicz in the PIST (National Institute of Theatre Arts) in Warsaw. He made his acting debut in 1935 in Vilnius, and his directing debut in 1939 in Warsaw; In the years 1939–1941 and 1944–1945, he was the director at the Polish Dramatic Theatre in Lviv (Open House by M. Bałucki, Mayor of Stylmond by M. Maeterlinck 1944); in the years 1945–1946, he was an actor and director of the Municipal Theatre in Katowice (Tobiasz Czkawka – Twelfth Night by Shakespeare); in 1946–1950, he lived abroad (Germany, Canada). In 1950, he started to work in theatres in Warsaw (1950–1957 and 1964–1965 in Teatr Polski, 1958–1960 director and artistic director of Teatr Ateneum, 1960–1964 in Teatr Współczesny). In 1965, he started to cooperate with many dramatic and musical theatres in Poland (e.g. in Warsaw: Teatr Współczesny, Teatr Powszechny, Teatr Wielki) and abroad (Austria, Yugoslavia, Israel, West Germany).

As a director, Bardini favoured actor-oriented and literary theatre (he put great emphasis on the faithful rendition of the author’s work and thorough interpretation of the text, especially psychological dramas): some of the performances he staged were: Intrigue and Love by F. Schiller (1951), Juliusz i Ethel by L. Kruczkowski (1954), Dziady by A. Mickiewicz (1955 – the first post-war staging), Streetcar Named Desire (1957) and The Night of the Iguana (1965) by T. Williams, Measure for Measure by W. Shakespeare (1964), Jan Gabriel Borkman by H. Ibsen (1975), Barbarians by M. Gorki (1976). He also directed many opera productions, in which the theatrical aspect played second fiddle to musical drama, e.g.: The Queen of Spades by P. Tchaikovsky (1950), Boris Godunov by M. Mussorgsky (1960), Straszny dwór (1963) and Halka (1965 – Vienna) by S. Moniuszko, Tomorrow by T. Baird (1966), Otello by G. Verdi (1969), Elektra by R. Strauss (1971), Katerina Ismailova by D. Shostakovich (1977 – Amsterdam).

He also performed as an actor in theatres (including: Pere Goriot in Eugenia Grandet based on H. Balzac, the Advocate in The Trial based on F. Kafka, Giri in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Jonathan Peachum in The Threepenny Opera by B. Brecht); he read recited fragments in musical works (Modern Psalm and A Survivor from Warsaw by A. Schönberg, Oedipus the King by I. Stravinsky, St. Luke Passion by K. Penderecki).

He appeared in Polish films (including: Zaliczenie [1968] and Spiral [1978] by K. Zanussi, Landscape after the Battle [1970] and Korczak [1990] by A. Wajda, Dekalog II [1988] and The Double Life of Veronique [1991] by K. Kieślowski) and foreign motion pictures. He directed TV performances with the participation of students of the PWST (State Theatre Academy): Kochajmy Szekspira (1962), Ćwiczenia z Szekspira (1971), Three Sisters by A. Chekhov (1974), and hosted his own programme entitled Meetings with Professor Aleksander Bardini, which promoted the culture of word and music among young people. In the years 1950–1978, he was a lecturer at the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw (professor since 1953); he also worked in artistic schools in Austria, Holland, Sweden, and the USA.

Bibliography

  • Komorowska M., “Aleksander Bardini — czas na słuchanie drugiego człowieka,” Teatr 1980, no. 9.
  • Osterloff B., “Teatr Aleksandra Bardiniego,” Teatr 1995, no. 11.

Joanna Bartoszewicz

 © The entry was written on the basis of source materials of the PWN printing house.

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