Actors - Helena Modjeska

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	Actors - Helena Modjeska

Helena Modjeska (Helena Modrzejewska; 1840-1909) was a renowned Polish actress who settled in the United States.

Early Life and Marriage

Madame Modjeska was born on October 12, 1840, in Krakow, Poland. Her father, Michał Opido, was a musician, and her tastes soon declared themselves strongly in favor of a dramatic career; but it was not until after her marriage in 1861 that she first attempted to act, and then it was with a company of strolling players.

Her husband (whose surname, Modrzejewski, she simplified for stage purposes) died in 1865. In 1868 she married Count Karol Bozenta Chłapowski, a Polish politician and critic, and almost immediately afterwards received an invitation to act at Warsaw, Poland. There she remained for seven or eight years, and won a high position in her art.

Move to California

In 1876 she went with her husband and son to Southern California, where they settled on a ranch in the Santa Ana Mountains. The area, in what is now Orange County, California, was quite remote and lacking in culture. The family helped found a small Polish colony centered in Anaheim, California. The ranch proved a failure and Madame Modjeska returned to the stage. She learned to speak quite good English within a year, having known nothing of the language when she arrived.

Acting career

She appeared in San Francisco in 1877, in an English version of Adrienne Lecouvreur
, and, in spite of her not entirely perfect command of the language, achieved a remarkable success. In 1883 she starred as "Nora" in the first professional production of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House in the U.S. A candymaker in Louisville, Kentucky saw a performance in that role and named a confection after her. She continued to act principally in America, but also periodically toured in Poland and the United Kingdom with great success. She had a reputation as the leading female interpreter of Shakespeare on the American stage in the 1880s and 1890s.

She died on April 9, 1909, at her home at the age of 68.

Modjeska's home, "Arden", in "Modjeska Canyon" in Orange County is a National Historic Landmark. The 5496'/1,675m-tall peak in the Santa Ana Mountains, at the headwaters of her canyon, was named "Modjeska Peak" in her honor following her death.

Modjeska's son, Ralph Modjeski, was the most prominent U.S. bridge engineer of the early 20th century. She was the godmother of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz.

Roles

Her chief tragic roles were:

Shakespeare
*Ophelia
*Juliet
*Desdemona
*Queen Anne in Richard III
Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House
Louisa Miller
Maria Stuart
Friedrich Schiller's Princess Eboli
Marion Delorme
Victor Hugo's Tisb
Slowacki's Mazeppa

In comedy her favorite roles were:

Beatrice in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
Donna Diana in "Donna Diana".

Madame Modjeska was also the Polish interpreter of the most prominent plays of Legouv, Dumas père and fils, Émile Augier, Alfred de Musset, Octave Feuillet and Victorien Sardou.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Helena Modjeska ]

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