A world premiere recording on period instruments, this is a new recording of Stanislaw Moniuszko's Opera in One Act - Flis: The Raftsman. The Raftsman, one of Stanislaw Moniuszkos less familiar and less popular operas, is the second work in the genreafter Halkato enter the Fryderyk Chopin Institutes Moniuszko collection. Unjustly neglected, only sporadically seen on stages in Poland and practically non-existent abroad, there is not the slightest doubt that this work deserves our attentionand our affection. A cheerful, one-act opera set on the picturesque banks of the Vistula, on the edge of Warsaw, it represented the composers nod of appreciation to the city in which the prospect was opening up before himas he believed with all his heartof the fulfilment of all his artistic dreams. The reality proved less rosy, yet despite all the difficulties, worries and disappointments, the fourteen years he spent here (until his premature death) were certainly a time of creative fulfilment for Moniuszko, and Warsaw warmly reciprocated his feelings. The Raftsman is essentially a charming genre scene painted in music, displaying everything for which the composer is so beloved in Polandand increasingly esteemed around the world. Beautifully melodious, colourful, distinctive, at once both exceedingly rich and full of simplicity, it draws in the best way on the national tradition and culture of which Moniuszko was one of the most whole-hearted chroniclers.