Helena Modjeska
Encyclopedia
Helena ModjeskaHelena Modjeska (October 12, 1840 – April 8, 1909, whose actual Polish
surname was Modrzejewska (mɔdʐɛˈjɛfska), was a renowned actress who specialized in Shakespearean
and tragic roles.
Modjeska was the mother of Polish-American bridge engineer Ralph Modjeski
.
, on October 12, 1840. Her name was recorded at birth as Jadwiga Benda, but she was later baptized Helena Opid, being given her godfather’s surname.
The question of her origins is a complicated one. Modjeska’s mother was Józefa (Misel) Benda, the widow of a prosperous Kraków merchant, Szymon Benda. In her autobiography, Modjeska claimed that her father was a musician named Michael Opid. While it is true that the Benda family did employ a music teacher named Michal Opid, who later stood as Helena’s godfather, Opid was not the father of Józefa Benda’s two youngest children.
There is evidence to suggest that Helena and her older brother Adolf were the results of an affair between Józefa and Prince Władysław Sanguszko
, a wealthy and influential Polish nobleman.
Also glossed over in Modjeska's autobiography were the details concerning her first marriage, to her former guardian, Gustave Sinnmayer (known in Poland as Gustaw Zimajer). Gustave was an actor and the director of a second-rate provincial theater troupe. The date of Modjeska’s marriage to Gustave is uncertain. She discovered many years later that they had never been legally married, as he was still married to his first wife when they wed. Together the couple had two children, a son Rudolf (later renamed Ralph Modjeski
), and a daughter Marylka, who died in infancy.
Gustaw Zimajer used the stage name "Gustaw Modrzejewski." It was the feminine version of this name that Modjeska adopted when she made her stage debut in 1861 as Helena Modrzejewska. Later, when acting abroad, she used an "anglicized" version of her name ("Modjeska"), which was easier for English-speaking audiences to pronounce.
In her early Polish acting career, Modrzejewska played at Bochnia
, Nowy Sącz
, Przemyśl
, Rzeszów
and Brzeżany. In 1862 she appeared for the first time in Lwów, playing in her first Romantic drama, as "Skierka" in Juliusz Słowacki's Balladyna. From 1863 she appeared at Stanisławów
and Czerniowce, in plays by Słowacki.
In 1865 Zimajer tried to get her a contract with Viennese
theaters, but the plan came to naught due to her poor knowledge of the German language
. Later that year Helena left Zimajer, taking their son Rudolf, and returning to Kraków. Once there she accepted a four-year theatrical engagement. In 1868 she began appearing in Warsaw
; during her eight years there, she consolidated her status as a theater star. Her brothers Józef and Feliks Benda were also well regarded actors in Poland.
An incident illustrates the circumstances under which Polish society then labored. At one of Modrzejewska's Warsaw performances, seventeen secondary-school pupils presented her with a bouquet of flowers tied with a ribbon in the red-and-white Polish national colors. The pupils were accused by the Russian Imperial
authorities of conducting a patriotic demonstration. They were expelled from their school and banned from admission to any other school. One of the pupils, Ignacy Neufeld, subsequently shot himself; Modrzejewska attended his funeral.
. His family belonged to the untitled landed gentry (szlachta
). In the United States
he adopted the stage name "Count Bozenta" as a ploy to gain publicity. "Bozenta" was easier for an English-speaking audience to pronounce than "Chłapowski."
At the time of their marriage, Chłapowski was employed as the editor of a liberal nationalist newspaper, Kraj (The Country), which was owned by Adam Sapieha
and a Mr. Sammelson. Modjeska wrote that their home "became the center of the artistic and literary world [of Kraków]." Poets, authors, politicians, artists, composers and other actors frequented Modjeska’s salon
.
In July 1876, after spending more than a decade as the reigning diva of the Polish national theater, for reasons both personal and political, Modjeska and her husband chose to emigrate to the United States.
Once in America, Modjeska and her husband purchased a ranch near Anaheim, California
. Julian Sypniewski, Łucjan Paprowski and Henryk Sienkiewicz
, future author of famous novels including Quo Vadis
, were among the friends who had accompanied them to California. It was during this period that Sienkiewicz wrote his Charcoal Sketches (Szkice węglem). Originally the artists Stanisław Witkiewicz (father of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz) and Adam Chmielowski (the future St. Albert) were also to have come with Modjeska's group, but changed their plans.
Modjeska intended to abandon her career and envisioned herself living "a life of toil under the blue skies of California, among the hills, riding on horseback with a gun over my shoulder." The reality proved less cinematic. None of the colonists knew the first thing about ranching or farming, and they could barely speak English. The utopian experiment failed, the colonists went their separate ways, and Modjeska returned to the stage, reprising the Shakespearean roles that she had performed in Poland. Perhaps the best account of daily life on the ranch is Theodore Payne
's memoir, Life on the Modjeska Ranch in the Gay Nineties.
On Ausugust 20, 1877 Modjeska debuted at the California Theatre
in San Francisco in an English version of Ernest Legouvé
's Adrienne Lecouvreur
and also made her New York debut. She then spent three years abroad (1879–82), mainly in London, attempting to improve her English, before returning to the stage in America. Despite her accent and imperfect command of English, she achieved great success.
During her career she played nine Shakespearean heroines, Marguerite Gautier in Camille
, and Schiller's Maria Stuart
. In 1883, the year she obtained American citizenship, she produced Henrik Ibsen
's A Doll's House
in Louisville, Kentucky
, the first Ibsen play staged in the United States. In the 1880s and 1890s she had a reputation as the leading female interpreter of Shakespeare on the American stage.
In 1893 Modjeska was invited to speak to a women's conference at the Chicago World's Fair, and described the situation of Polish women in the Russia
n and Prussia
n-ruled parts of dismembered Poland
. This led to a Tsarist ban on her traveling in Russian territory.
Modjeska suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed in 1897, but recovered and soon returned to the stage, continuing to perform for several additional years.
During her last stay in Poland, from October 31, 1902 to April 28, 1903, she appeared on the stage in Lwów, Poznań
and her native Kraków
.
On May 2, 1905, she gave a jubilee performance in New York City
. Then she toured for two years and ended her acting career, afterward only appearing sporadically in support of charitable causes.
Modjeska died at Newport Beach, California
on April 8, 1909, aged 68, from Bright's disease
. Her remains were sent to Kraków to be buried in the family plot at the Rakowicki Cemetery
.
Her autobiography, Memories and Impressions of Helena Modjeska, was published posthumously in 1910. A Polish translation ran that same year in the Kraków
newspaper, Czas (Time). The last Polish edition of the book appeared in 1957.
Modrzejewska's son, Rudolf Modrzejewski (Ralph Modjeski
), was a civil engineer
who gained fame as a designer of bridge
s.
Modjeska's home from 1888 to 1906, "Arden"
, is a registered National Historic Landmark
.
Named for her are:
Also a statue of Modjeska is located outside the Pearson Park Amphitheater in Anaheim, California.
Modjeska was the mother of bridge engineer Ralph Modjeski
and godmother to artist-author-philosopher Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (son of artist Stanisław Witkiewicz, who almost accompanied Modjeska and her family to California
in 1876). She was also the aunt of artist Władysław T. Benda
.
She was godmother
to American actress Ethel Barrymore
.
Modjeska's chief tragic
roles were:
Modrzejewska was also the Polish
interpreter of the most prominent plays by Ernest Legouvé
, Alexandre Dumas, père
and fils
, Émile Augier
, Alfred de Musset
, Octave Feuillet
and Victorien Sardou
.
's award-winning 1999 novel, In America
, though fiction, is based on Modjeska's life. The book precipitated a controversy when Sontag was accused of having plagiarized
other works about Modjeska.
Modjeska was a character in the novella My Mortal Enemy
, by Willa Cather
.
Scholars Joanna and Catharina Polatynska have posited that Modjeska might have been Arthur Conan Doyle
's model for the character Irene Adler
, the only woman that Sherlock Holmes
came close to loving. In "A Scandal in Bohemia
", Doyle mentions Adler having been prima donna
of the fictional Imperial Opera of Warsaw in the same years when Modjeska was at the peak of her theatrical career in Warsaw
, and the fictional character's personality recalls that of the actual actress.
in Santa Ana, California
.
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
surname was Modrzejewska (mɔdʐɛˈjɛfska), was a renowned actress who specialized in Shakespearean
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
and tragic roles.
Modjeska was the mother of Polish-American bridge engineer Ralph Modjeski
Ralph Modjeski
Ralph Modjeski was a Polish-born American civil engineer who achieved prominence as a pre-eminent bridge designer in the United States.-Life:...
.
Early life
Helena Modjeska was born in Kraków, PolandFree City of Kraków
The Free, Independent, and Strictly Neutral City of Kraków with its Territory , more commonly known as either the Free City of Kraków or Republic of Kraków , was a city-state created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and controlled by its three neighbours until 1846, when in the aftermath of the...
, on October 12, 1840. Her name was recorded at birth as Jadwiga Benda, but she was later baptized Helena Opid, being given her godfather’s surname.
The question of her origins is a complicated one. Modjeska’s mother was Józefa (Misel) Benda, the widow of a prosperous Kraków merchant, Szymon Benda. In her autobiography, Modjeska claimed that her father was a musician named Michael Opid. While it is true that the Benda family did employ a music teacher named Michal Opid, who later stood as Helena’s godfather, Opid was not the father of Józefa Benda’s two youngest children.
There is evidence to suggest that Helena and her older brother Adolf were the results of an affair between Józefa and Prince Władysław Sanguszko
Sanguszko
Sanguszko is a Polish-Lithuanian noble family of the Ruthenian Sanguszko is a Polish-Lithuanian noble family of the Ruthenian Sanguszko is a Polish-Lithuanian noble family of the Ruthenian (now Ukrainian stock from the Gediminid dynasty. Like other princely houses of Polish-Lithuanian...
, a wealthy and influential Polish nobleman.
Also glossed over in Modjeska's autobiography were the details concerning her first marriage, to her former guardian, Gustave Sinnmayer (known in Poland as Gustaw Zimajer). Gustave was an actor and the director of a second-rate provincial theater troupe. The date of Modjeska’s marriage to Gustave is uncertain. She discovered many years later that they had never been legally married, as he was still married to his first wife when they wed. Together the couple had two children, a son Rudolf (later renamed Ralph Modjeski
Ralph Modjeski
Ralph Modjeski was a Polish-born American civil engineer who achieved prominence as a pre-eminent bridge designer in the United States.-Life:...
), and a daughter Marylka, who died in infancy.
Gustaw Zimajer used the stage name "Gustaw Modrzejewski." It was the feminine version of this name that Modjeska adopted when she made her stage debut in 1861 as Helena Modrzejewska. Later, when acting abroad, she used an "anglicized" version of her name ("Modjeska"), which was easier for English-speaking audiences to pronounce.
Bochnia
Bochnia is a town of 30,000 inhabitants on the river Raba in southern Poland. The town lies approximately in halfway [] between Tarnów and the regional capital Kraków . Bochnia is most noted for its salt mine, the oldest functioning in Europe, built circa 1248...
, Nowy Sącz
Nowy Sacz
Nowy Sącz is a town in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship in southern Poland. It is the district capital of Nowy Sącz County, but is not included within the powiat.-Names:...
, Przemyśl
Przemysl
Przemyśl is a city in south-eastern Poland with 66,756 inhabitants, as of June 2009. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship; it was previously the capital of Przemyśl Voivodeship....
, Rzeszów
Rzeszów
Rzeszów is a city in southeastern Poland with a population of 179,455 in 2010. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River, in the heartland of the Sandomierska Valley...
and Brzeżany. In 1862 she appeared for the first time in Lwów, playing in her first Romantic drama, as "Skierka" in Juliusz Słowacki's Balladyna. From 1863 she appeared at Stanisławów
Ivano-Frankivsk
Ivano-Frankivsk is a historic city located in the western Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast, municipality....
and Czerniowce, in plays by Słowacki.
In 1865 Zimajer tried to get her a contract with Viennese
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
theaters, but the plan came to naught due to her poor knowledge of the German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. Later that year Helena left Zimajer, taking their son Rudolf, and returning to Kraków. Once there she accepted a four-year theatrical engagement. In 1868 she began appearing in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
; during her eight years there, she consolidated her status as a theater star. Her brothers Józef and Feliks Benda were also well regarded actors in Poland.
An incident illustrates the circumstances under which Polish society then labored. At one of Modrzejewska's Warsaw performances, seventeen secondary-school pupils presented her with a bouquet of flowers tied with a ribbon in the red-and-white Polish national colors. The pupils were accused by the Russian Imperial
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
authorities of conducting a patriotic demonstration. They were expelled from their school and banned from admission to any other school. One of the pupils, Ignacy Neufeld, subsequently shot himself; Modrzejewska attended his funeral.
Chłapowski
On September 12, 1868, Modjeska married a Polish nobleman, Karol Bożenta Chłapowski. Best known in America as "Count Bozenta," he was not a countCount
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
. His family belonged to the untitled landed gentry (szlachta
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
). In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
he adopted the stage name "Count Bozenta" as a ploy to gain publicity. "Bozenta" was easier for an English-speaking audience to pronounce than "Chłapowski."
At the time of their marriage, Chłapowski was employed as the editor of a liberal nationalist newspaper, Kraj (The Country), which was owned by Adam Sapieha
Sapieha
The Sapieha is a Polish-Lithuanian princely family descending from the medieval boyars of Smolensk. The family acquired great influence in the sixteenth century.-History:...
and a Mr. Sammelson. Modjeska wrote that their home "became the center of the artistic and literary world [of Kraków]." Poets, authors, politicians, artists, composers and other actors frequented Modjeska’s salon
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
.
Emigration
Once in America, Modjeska and her husband purchased a ranch near Anaheim, California
Anaheim, California
Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was about 365,463, making it the most populated city in Orange County, the 10th most-populated city in California, and ranked 54th in the United States...
. Julian Sypniewski, Łucjan Paprowski and Henryk Sienkiewicz
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. A Polish szlachcic of the Oszyk coat of arms, he was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his...
, future author of famous novels including Quo Vadis
Quo Vadis (novel)
Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero, commonly known as Quo Vadis, is a historical novel written by Henryk Sienkiewicz in Polish. Quo vadis is Latin for "Where are you going?" and alludes to the apocryphal Acts of Peter, in which Peter flees Rome but on his way meets Jesus and asks him why he...
, were among the friends who had accompanied them to California. It was during this period that Sienkiewicz wrote his Charcoal Sketches (Szkice węglem). Originally the artists Stanisław Witkiewicz (father of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz) and Adam Chmielowski (the future St. Albert) were also to have come with Modjeska's group, but changed their plans.
Modjeska intended to abandon her career and envisioned herself living "a life of toil under the blue skies of California, among the hills, riding on horseback with a gun over my shoulder." The reality proved less cinematic. None of the colonists knew the first thing about ranching or farming, and they could barely speak English. The utopian experiment failed, the colonists went their separate ways, and Modjeska returned to the stage, reprising the Shakespearean roles that she had performed in Poland. Perhaps the best account of daily life on the ranch is Theodore Payne
Theodore Payne
Theodore Payne was born in Northamptonshire, England on June 19, 1872 and served an apprenticeship in horticulture. He first saw California native plants at The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in England in 1891...
's memoir, Life on the Modjeska Ranch in the Gay Nineties.
American career
California Theatre (San Francisco)
The California Theatre , was located at 414 Bush Street, San Francisco. It was built in 1869 by William Ralston, at that time the treasurer of the Bank of California. S. C. Bugbee & Son were the architects and the theatre cost $250, 000 to build.Anpther source puts the figure at $150,000...
in San Francisco in an English version of Ernest Legouvé
Ernest Legouvé
Gabriel Jean Baptiste Ernest Wilfrid Legouvé was a French dramatist.-Biography:Son of the poet Gabriel-Marie Legouvé , he was born in Paris. His mother died in 1810, and almost immediately afterwards his father was removed to a lunatic asylum. The child, however, inherited a considerable fortune,...
's Adrienne Lecouvreur
Adrienne Lecouvreur
Adrienne Lecouvreur was a French actress.Born in Damery, she first appeared professionally on the stage in Lille...
and also made her New York debut. She then spent three years abroad (1879–82), mainly in London, attempting to improve her English, before returning to the stage in America. Despite her accent and imperfect command of English, she achieved great success.
During her career she played nine Shakespearean heroines, Marguerite Gautier in Camille
The Lady of the Camellias
The Lady of the Camellias is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils, first published in 1848, and subsequently adapted for the stage. The Lady of the Camellias premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, France on February 2, 1852. The play was an instant success, and Giuseppe Verdi immediately set...
, and Schiller's Maria Stuart
Maria Stuart (play)
Mary Stuart , a play by Friedrich Schiller, depicts the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots. The play consists of five acts, each divided into several scenes. The play had its première in Weimar, Germany on 14 June 1800...
. In 1883, the year she obtained American citizenship, she produced Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's A Doll's House
A Doll's House
A Doll's House is a three-act play in prose by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premièred at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having been published earlier that month....
in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, the first Ibsen play staged in the United States. In the 1880s and 1890s she had a reputation as the leading female interpreter of Shakespeare on the American stage.
In 1893 Modjeska was invited to speak to a women's conference at the Chicago World's Fair, and described the situation of Polish women in the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n and Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n-ruled parts of dismembered Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. This led to a Tsarist ban on her traveling in Russian territory.
Modjeska suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed in 1897, but recovered and soon returned to the stage, continuing to perform for several additional years.
During her last stay in Poland, from October 31, 1902 to April 28, 1903, she appeared on the stage in Lwów, Poznań
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
and her native Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
.
On May 2, 1905, she gave a jubilee performance in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Then she toured for two years and ended her acting career, afterward only appearing sporadically in support of charitable causes.
Modjeska died at Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach, incorporated in 1906, is a city in Orange County, California, south of downtown Santa Ana. The population was 85,186 at the 2010 census.The city's median family income and property values consistently place high in national rankings...
on April 8, 1909, aged 68, from Bright's disease
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....
. Her remains were sent to Kraków to be buried in the family plot at the Rakowicki Cemetery
Rakowicki Cemetery
Rakowicki Cemetery is one of the best known cemeteries of Poland, located in the centre of Kraków. It lies within the Administrative District No. 1 Stare Miasto meaning "Old Town" – not to be confused with the historic Kraków Old Town further west...
.
Her autobiography, Memories and Impressions of Helena Modjeska, was published posthumously in 1910. A Polish translation ran that same year in the Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
newspaper, Czas (Time). The last Polish edition of the book appeared in 1957.
Modrzejewska's son, Rudolf Modrzejewski (Ralph Modjeski
Ralph Modjeski
Ralph Modjeski was a Polish-born American civil engineer who achieved prominence as a pre-eminent bridge designer in the United States.-Life:...
), was a civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
who gained fame as a designer of bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
s.
Legacies
Modjeska House
Modjeska House, also known as Arden, is a house designed by Stanford White in Modjeska, California. It is significant for being the only surviving home of Helena Modjeska, a Shakespearean actress and Polish patriot.-Background:...
, is a registered National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
.
Named for her are:
- Modjeska Canyon, CaliforniaModjeska Canyon, CaliforniaModjeska Canyon is an unincorporated area on the western slope of the Santa Ana Mountains in eastern Orange County, California. It is a rural community of several hundred residents, with a small park and a volunteer fire station....
(where Arden is located) - Modjeska PeakModjeska PeakModjeska Peak is the northern mountain of Orange County's Saddleback formation. It is the second highest peak of the Santa Ana Mountains.The peak is named for Shakespearean actress Helena Modjeska, who lived in its shadow near the end of her life....
(the north peak of Saddleback MountainSaddleback MountainSaddleback Mountain is the name of a number of mountains worldwide.-In the United States:California* Saddleback Maine* Saddleback Junior, 574662...
). - Modjeskas, a caramelCaramelCaramel is a beige to dark-brown confection made by heating any of a variety of sugars. It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, and as a topping for ice cream, custard and coffee....
-covered marshmallowMarshmallowThe marshmallow is a confection that, in its modern form, typically consists of sugar, corn syrup, water, gelatin that has been softened in hot water, dextrose, vanilla flavourings, and sometimes colouring, whipped to a spongy consistency. Some marshmallow recipes call for egg whites...
confection invented by a candy-maker named Busath (and later made by other candy-makers, including Muth's Candies and Schimpff's ConfectionerySchimpff's ConfectionerySchimpff's Confectionery is a candy store and museum located in Jeffersonville, Indiana, within the Old Jeffersonville Historic District. It was opened in 1891 at the same site it is today by Gustav Schimpff Sr. and Jr., although the family had been making candy in the Louisville, Kentucky, area...
) in her honor when she visited Louisville, KentuckyLouisville, KentuckyLouisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
.
Also a statue of Modjeska is located outside the Pearson Park Amphitheater in Anaheim, California.
Modjeska was the mother of bridge engineer Ralph Modjeski
Ralph Modjeski
Ralph Modjeski was a Polish-born American civil engineer who achieved prominence as a pre-eminent bridge designer in the United States.-Life:...
and godmother to artist-author-philosopher Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (son of artist Stanisław Witkiewicz, who almost accompanied Modjeska and her family to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1876). She was also the aunt of artist Władysław T. Benda
Władysław T. Benda
Władysław Teodor "W.T." Benda was a Polish-American painter, illustrator, and designer....
.
She was godmother
Godparent
A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...
to American actress Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
.
Roles
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
roles were:
- William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
: - Ophelia, in HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
; - Juliet, in Romeo and JulietRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
; - DesdemonaDesdemona (Othello)Desdemona is a character in William Shakespeare's play Othello . Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a man several years her senior. When her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the...
, in OthelloOthelloThe Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
; and - Queen Anne, in Richard IIIRichard III (play)Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
. - Nora, in Henrik IbsenHenrik IbsenHenrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's A Doll's HouseA Doll's HouseA Doll's House is a three-act play in prose by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premièred at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having been published earlier that month....
. - Louisa Miller.
- Friedrich SchillerFriedrich SchillerJohann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
's Maria StuartMaria Stuart (play)Mary Stuart , a play by Friedrich Schiller, depicts the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots. The play consists of five acts, each divided into several scenes. The play had its première in Weimar, Germany on 14 June 1800...
and Princess Eboli. - Marion DelormeMarion DelormeMarion Delorme was a French courtesan known for her relationships with the important men of her time.- Early life, life as a courtesan, early death :...
, in Victor HugoVictor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
's Marion DelormeMarion Delorme (Hugo)Marion Delorme is a play by Victor Hugo in 5 acts, about the famous French courtesan of that name. It was first presented in 1831....
. - Victor HugoVictor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
's Tisbé. - Juliusz Słowacki's Maria Stuart and Mazeppa.
Modrzejewska was also the Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
interpreter of the most prominent plays by Ernest Legouvé
Ernest Legouvé
Gabriel Jean Baptiste Ernest Wilfrid Legouvé was a French dramatist.-Biography:Son of the poet Gabriel-Marie Legouvé , he was born in Paris. His mother died in 1810, and almost immediately afterwards his father was removed to a lunatic asylum. The child, however, inherited a considerable fortune,...
, Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
and fils
Alexandre Dumas, fils
Alexandre Dumas, fils was a French author and dramatist. He was the son of Alexandre Dumas, père, also a writer and playwright.-Biography:...
, Émile Augier
Émile Augier
Guillaume Victor Émile Augier was a French dramatist. He was the thirteenth member to occupy seat 1 of the Académie française on 31 March 1857.-Biography:...
, Alfred de Musset
Alfred de Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.Along with his poetry, he is known for writing La Confession d'un enfant du siècle from 1836.-Biography:Musset was born on 11 December 1810 in Paris...
, Octave Feuillet
Octave Feuillet
Octave Feuillet was a French novelist and dramatist.- Overview :Octave Feuillet was born at Saint-Lô, Manche . His father Jacques Feuillet was a prominent lawyer and Secretary-General of La Manche, but also a hypersensitive invalid. His mother died when he was an infant...
and Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play...
.
In literature
Susan SontagSusan Sontag
Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
's award-winning 1999 novel, In America
In America (Sontag)
In America is a 1999 novel by Susan Sontag which won the National Book Award in 2000. Although it is fiction, it is based upon the true story of the Polish actress Helena Modjeska , her arrival in California in 1876, and her ascendency to American stardom.Sontag was accused of plagiarism by Ellen...
, though fiction, is based on Modjeska's life. The book precipitated a controversy when Sontag was accused of having plagiarized
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
other works about Modjeska.
Modjeska was a character in the novella My Mortal Enemy
My Mortal Enemy
My Mortal Enemy is the eighth novel by American author Willa Cather. It was first published in 1926.-Plot summary:Myra and her husband Oswald return to their fictional hometown of Parthia, Illinois, to visit their relatives. Nellie and Aunt Lydia then leave to spend the Christmas holiday in New...
, by Willa Cather
Willa Cather
Willa Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
.
Scholars Joanna and Catharina Polatynska have posited that Modjeska might have been Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
's model for the character Irene Adler
Irene Adler
Irene Adler is a fictional character featured in the Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in July 1891...
, the only woman that Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
came close to loving. In "A Scandal in Bohemia
A Scandal in Bohemia
"A Scandal in Bohemia" was the first of Arthur Conan Doyle's 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories to be published in The Strand Magazine and the first Sherlock Holmes story illustrated by Sidney Paget....
", Doyle mentions Adler having been prima donna
Prima donna
Originally used in opera or Commedia dell'arte companies, "prima donna" is Italian for "first lady." The term was used to designate the leading female singer in the opera company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. The prima donna was normally, but not necessarily, a soprano...
of the fictional Imperial Opera of Warsaw in the same years when Modjeska was at the peak of her theatrical career in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, and the fictional character's personality recalls that of the actual actress.
Death anniversary
In 2009, in honor of the 100th anniversary of her death, the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków presented an exhibition, "Helena Modjeska (1840-1909): For the Love of Art" (8 April – 20 September 2009). The Warsaw staging of the same exhibition ran from October 2009 through January 2010. The exhibition included items from the Bowers MuseumBowers Museum
The Bowers Museum is located in Santa Ana, California, in Orange County. The museum offers exhibitions, lectures, art classes, travel programs, children’s art and music education programs, and other community events...
in Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
.
External links
- Biography of Madame Helena Modjeska
- Guide to the Helena Modjeska Collection. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
- Modjeska Home website
- Diogenes Club. Theaters in Warsaw, Where Irene Adler Sang
- A play in which Modjeska reflects on her life