Born in a small village near Minsk, Stanisław Moniuszko acquired wider musical experience in Berlin and made his name as a Polish national celebrity with his opera Halka. The Haunted Manor is generally considered to be Moniuszko’s masterpiece. In a plot thick with masculine challenges and feminine trickery, the story revolves around two brothers and the romantic complications which arise in a house cast under a spell of love. Polish opera legend Bogdan Paprocki leads a powerful cast in a vibrant performance set down in Poznań in 1953 and 1954, the first ever recording of the opera.