Celebrated Polish actress, legend in her lifetime, she was a star in Poland and America. Born 12 October 1840 in Cracow, died 8 April 1909 in Newport Beach, California.

Modrzejewska was an illegimate child of Józefa Bendowa nee Misel, widow of a wealthy trader, and an unidentified father. While she called her mother's friend, Michał Opid, her father, the gossip was that she was daughter of Duke Eustachy Sanguszko. Her half brothers, Feliks and Jozef, were actors. "Modrzejewska" is a pseudonym she adopted in the early days of her acting career.

Modrzejewska was first a pupil at a boarding school for girls and then at a school run by the Presentation Sisters. Her acting career began on provincial stages and was heavily supported by her life partner, Gustaw Zimajer. It was owing to him that she first appeared on stage in Bochnia in 1861 and shortly afterwards in Nowy Sącz, Przemyśl, Rzeszów, and Brzezany. The reviewers wrote about

"the unquestionable talent of Mrs Modrzejewska who, while still coping with the difficulties of her profession, puts so much work and diligence into every stage appearance that over time she may become the highlight of the best theatre". ("Dziennik Literacki", after Józef Szczublewski, "Zywot Modrzejewskiej" / "Modrzejewska's Life", Warsaw 1975)

In 1862 she first appeared before the audience of Lvov. The three different roles she played earned her a contract with the Lvov theatre, where she first had the part of Skierka in Słowacki's drama "Balladyna". A young and inexperienced actress, she could not, however, count on major roles in the classical repertoire. Therefore in early 1863 she left Lvov for the stages of Stanislavov and Chernyovtsy. She played the title role of Barbara Radziwiłłówna in Alojzy Felinski's tragedy and was Louisa in Friedrich Schiller's "Intrigue and Love", Amelia in Juliusz Słowacki's "Mazepa", and Mary Stuart in Słowacki's "Maria Stuart". She was to appear in plays by Słowacki a number of times, becoming a reputable perfomer of their female roles.

Persuaded by Zimajer, Modrzejewska attempted to sign a contract with one of the Vienna theatres, but did not succeed, her German being not good enough. After she had parted with Zimajer, who had fathered her two children, she moved to Cracow to first appear on its stage in October 1865. The then artistic manager (and would-be director) of the Cracow theatre, Stanisław Koźmian, turned it into a special place, with a repertoire embracing Polish and foreign classics as well as ambitious contemporary dramas, and with a group of the most interesting Polish actors, including Wincenty Rapacki and Antonina Hoffman alongside Modrzejewska. Koźmian created the so-called "Cracow school" that opposed the cult of the stars and strict specialization, aiming at revealing the psychological, reality-based truth of the protagonists. The playwrights' intentions were studied carefully and team work was the order of the day.

Modrzejewska first appeared in this theatre as Sara in Waclaw Szymanowski's "Salomon".

"She came across as an actress who would be hard to come by even on the stages of great capital cities, an artist who, through work and enlightened management, could join the first ranks. Mother nature has been generous with her. She has given her all an artist needs: a beautiful appearance, figure and voice and the most important gift of artistic perspicacity which makes one instinctively feel what a role needs", wrote a "Kurier Warszawski" reviewer (after Józef Szczublewski, "Zywot Modrzejewskiej", Warszawa 1975).

Modrzejewska's main roles at the time included Anna Oswiecimowna in a play by Mikolaj Boloz Antoniewicz (1865), Princess Eboli in "Don Carlos" (1866), Amalia in Schiller's "The Robbers" (1866) and, the same year, Portia in "The Merchant of Venice" (her first Shakespearian role). The following year she played the part of Ophelia in "Hamlet" and of Doñe Sol in Victor Hugo's "Hernani". Her title role in Eugene Scribe and Ernest Legouve's "Adrianna Lecouvreur" was a triumph.

Modrzejewska's four years of acting in Cracow were spent working hard, competing with the actress Antonina Hoffman, and scoring successes with the public and the critics alike. The latter considered her worthy of appearing in Vienna's famous Burgtheater. An intelligent and sensitive individualist, Modrzejewska used her time at the Cracow theatre well, learning a new, more understated acting and getting rid of bad, provincial theatre habits.

On 4 October 1868 Modrzejewska, by then much talked about in Warsaw, first appeared in front of the town's audience, a debut which was made possible owing to the support of Sergiusz Muchanow, managing director of the Warsaw Government Theatres, and his wife, Maria Kalergis-Muchanow. She played the part of Adrianna Lecouvreur.

"Even as early as then she was able to grade her performance as the plot moved on and liked to build it almost from scratch", wrote down Józef Szczublewski. "Adrianna's role suited this method better than any other. On that night Modrzejewska, starting from the zero level, brought the audience to extreme enthusiasm by the finale of Act V". (Józef Szczublewski, "Wielki i smutny teatr warszawski 1868-1880" ["Great and Sad Warsaw Theatre 1868-1880"], Warsaw 1963)

Her Warsaw debut a tremendous success, she could sign a contract with the Warsaw Government Theatre, becoming the first actress of drama and comedy and acquiring the status of a star. She influenced the repertoire - it was owing to her pressure that Warsaw could see "Hamlet"'s first premiere in fifty years (with Modrzejewska as Ophelia), and for the first time in translation from the original. Despite the resistance of the censorship, she pushed for Slowacki's dramas - "Maria Stuart" was premiered in 1872, followed by "Mazepa", whose Act 3 was first shown in 1872 and the entire play was put on stage the following year.

In Warsaw Modrzejewska played a number of parts, including that of Aniela in Aleksander Fredro's "Śluby panieńskie / Maidens' Vows" (1871), Princess Severine in Alexandre Dumas jr's "Princess George", Desdemona in "Othello" (1873) and Beatrice in "Much Ado About Nothing" (1876). She was also a guest actress in the theatres of Cracow and Lvov. By the time she parted with the Warsaw Government Theatres in 1876, she had firmly established her position of the greatest Polish actress and one of the most interesting actresses of her generation in Europe. A special place in her repertoire was held by Shakespeare, and she appeared 95 times in his plays in Warsaw.

In July 1867 Modrzejewska appeared for the last time in front of the Polish audience and left for America. She was accompanied by her husband Karol Chłapowski, whom she had married in Cracow in 1868. First she settled in Anaheim and ran a farm, but the business failed. The year later, by then using the simplified name Modjeska, she moved to San Francisco and, after an intensive English course, she debuted on the stage of The California Theatre in the title role of "Adrianna Lecouvreur". It was a tremendous success, and her cable to her husband read "Victory. Modjeska". Henryk Sienkiewicz, then the correspondent of "Gazeta Polska", thus ended his account of her performance:

"Everybody got in a frenzy ... Nobody left their seats after the end, a thing unheard of in America. Contrary to the custom, the actress was called back eleven times ... America was taken by storm" (after Józef Szczublewski, "Zywot Modrzejewskiej", Warszawa 1975).

In the autumn of 1877 Modrzejewska embarked upon her first American tournèe, appearing on the stages of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington and elsewhere.

"She is one of the great actresses of our times", wrote a reviewer of Philadelphia's "Public Ledger". "Calm and composure is her method. Not a touch of hysteria in the hottest explosions. She has a shocking power, made even greater by her allowing only a part of it to expose itself on the stage. A wonderfully expressive face. There is so much grace and truth in her movements and she expresses so much through her body that she would be able to clearly and accurately convey the movements of her thoughts through pantomime alone" (after Józef Szczublewski, "Żywot Modrzejewskiej", Warszawa 1975).

Modrzejewska worked hard to hone her acting skills. Aware that her voice was her weakness, she had focused on it back in Poland and, through exercises, managed to expand its scale. Upon arrival in America she studied English with vehemence. She took care to stay physically fit. A deliberate actress, she was able to graduate emotion, grabbing attention in the first scenes but not revealing true mastery until the key or final ones. Her excellent acting technique was often commented on and so was her magnetic personality which left the audience in awe. Her acting was described as "beautiful". She tended to defend and idealize her heroines, laying emphasis on moral beauty, often paid for by human erring. Her stage specialization was very broad and included comic, romantic and tragic roles alongside convicing portraits of heroines of contemporary drama, such as Henrik Ibsen's Nora. Over time her acting became more realistic, yet remained distant from pure realism, Modrzejewska being too much attached to the stage "aestethization" of her heroines. A number of her roles were said to have originated from the romantic understanding of beauty.

Three years later, in 1880 - her position in America established by then - she embarked upon a series of guest performances in England. She was very well received and would revisit England in 1881, 1882 and 1885. She became a United States citizen in 1883 and continued acting there until 1907. She worked very hard, going on twenty-six tournees with her company. She came with guest performances to Poland from 1879, visiting Cracow nine times, Lvov six times and Warsaw four times and playing also in Poznań, Tarnów, Łódź, Lublin and Stanislavov. There were 260 roles in her repertoire. Her Polish interpretations of Shakespearean roles went down in history (Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet", Ophelia in "Hamlet", Beatrice in "Much Ado About Nothing") and so did her later roles of Rosalind in "As You Like It", Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth", Viola in "Twelfth-Night", Cleopatra in "Antony and Cleopatra", Imogen in "Cymbeline". She played superbly the role of Margaret Gauthier in Alexandre Dumas fils' "Camille" as well as the title roles in Octave Feuillet's "Dalila" and Victorien Sardou's "Odette". She was admired as Nora, Magda and Silvia Settala in plays by Henrik Ibsen, Hermann Sudermann and Gabriele d'Annunzio. At the end of her career, in Poland, she played Mary and Laodamia in Stanisław Wyspiański's dramas "Warszawianka / Varsovienne" and "Protesilas and Laodamia".

Modrzejewska's memoirs, written in English, were published in 1910 as "Memories and impressions". The Polish translation, "Wspomnienia i wrażenia", came out in 1957.

Modrzejewska died in the United States in 1909 and was buried in Los Angeles. In accordance with her last will, her remains were later put to rest next to her mother's grave at the Rakowicki Cemetery in Cracow in a funeral ceremony which turned into a patriotic demonstration.

Author: Monika Mokrzycka-Pokora, September 2006

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