portraits of her (Melbechowska-Luty 2001). In one of them, a pen-and-ink drawing
of her profile, she is shown with roses in her hair, radiant with sensuousness, elegance,
and a pensive look verging on sadness (Figs. 106-107). When was this portrait made
of la donna cigno (as Maria was called)? Probably around 1850, when Norwid, who
was deeply in love with her, realised he had no chance of requitement.

We now pass on to a description of the music-making and singing in the Palace in
the years when la donna cigno was an occasional resident. In a relation of one of its
musical soirees we read that its guests included the Princess of Warsaw [the wife of
Paskevich] and her daughter, and well over a hundredpeople. In March 1842 Kurier
Warszawski reported that it was not thefirst time that the Countess’apartment was host-
ing a magnificent entertainment. . . . The mistress ofthe house and her daughters did the
honours, with the courteous hospitality for which the family of these ladies had been re-
nowned for many years. The programme ofthe singing consisted ofariasfrom famous ope-
ras: “Norma”, “Lucia di Lammermoor”, “La sonnambula”, and “Ipuritani”, and their
performance brought the listeners genuine pleasure. Vincenzo Bellini received an excellent
interpretation worthy ofhis august concepts from the amateur ladies who performed. They
were accompanied on the piano by Mr. Nach, and professionals, Messrs Tejchmann and
Ricciardi, also sang (Kwiatkowska and Malinowska 1976, p. 91).

In one of its issues for March 1859 the same newspaper informed its readers of the
previous night’s musical event in the rooms ofthe Honourable Maria Kalergis, daughter
of Count Nesselrode. It was thefirst time such an event had been held in the rooms ofa Lady
well-known for her hospitality, andgathereda large number ofexcellentguests ofboth sex-
esfor aperformance by talentedprofessionaL and amateur artists. Theformer included two
first-rate virtuosos recently arrived in Warsaw, the pianist Mr. Ludwik Kortmann, and
the violinist Mr. Kellner. These brilliant artists were received with great contentment by
the audience, for both had an undeniable musical talent, thanks to which their music was
in a very high class ofquality. . . . It was a genuinepleasure fior the audience to hear their
illustrious hostess give a solo performance ofworks by the foremost composers. Not much
later Kalergis held a musical matinee, tickets for which were available in her apartment
in Count Stanislaw Potocki’s Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmiescie, as thepress wrote.
The matinee took place on 10th April 1859, with theperformance ofmusic by Bach, Doni-
zetti, Schumann, Wagner, and Sajnello [Santarelli? Salieri? Savinelli?], andthe national
maestros, Chopin and Moniuszko. Ihe hostess herselfplayed the works of Chopin.

Kalergis, who lived in the Palace on and off from the 1840s to the early 1870s, must
have faced a formidable dilemma in reconciling the treatment of her father, who was the
general of the Russian gendarmes, in the manner due to close relatives, with her ability to
find a modus vivendi with the Poles. Apparently she managed this admirably. According
to her granddaughter, some time in 1846—1848 one of Maria’s friends got her up in the
middle of the night, tapping on her window — she lived on the Palaces ground floor at
the time - and asked her to hide some documents potentially troublesome for a group of
Polish conspirators. Madame Kalergis took the papers and dumped them into an open
hat-box on the table, and then went back to bed. In the morning her father woke her and
angrily declared that the authorities claimed that she was keeping important documents
given to her by “rebels”, and therefore she would be searched. Gendarmes appeared and
stood in the doorway, preventing her from leaving the room, which they searched thor-
ughly. But it did not occur to any of them to look into the hat-box which was standing
wide open on the table with the wanted documents in it. When the danger had passed
Madame Kalergis returned the papers to the plotters (see Szenic 1963).

Fig. 107. Maria Kalergis, photograph,
The Theatre Museum, Warsaw