Opera director. An outstanding Polish singer who has expanded her career to include opera directing, she is famous for her artistic achievements at all of Poland's theatres and in many locations abroad. She began her vocal studies in Katowice in Adam Didur's class and in Sopot in Adam Ludwig's and Wanda Hendrich's classes, and continued studying under Ada Sari in Warsaw and in Vercelli and Leipzig. She also graduated in drama and music in Gdańsk, in Iwa Galla's class (1949) and, near the end of her vocal career, from the Direction Department of the State Theatre School in Warsaw (1972). She was a soloist of the Warsaw Opera in 1949-1962.

She debuted here in the role of Balladyna in Żeleński's "Goplana", and went on to create many outstanding vocal and acting creations, particularly in Leon Schiller's famous production of "Halka". Later she had a permanent contract with the opera theatre in Leipzig and gave guest performances at West German opera theatres (including Lübeck, Hamburg and Saarbrűcken). She returned to Poland in 1967 and joined the Wielki Theatre in ŁódŸ. Over the following years she frequently performed abroad, both in operas and at concerts, in Europe, Asia and America. She has always been a promoter of Polish music.

After graduating from the State Theatre School she gave up singing and devoted herself to directing. As a singer, she displayed exceptional musical intuition and acting talent. Her voice encompassed a very wide scale (over two octaves), was dark in tone and dramatic in expression. She scored great successes in Moniuszko's "Halka" (15 different productions) and Puccini's "Tosca", and in roles including Liza in Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades", Leonora in Verdi's "La Forza del Destino", Elizabeth in Wagner's "Tannhäuser" and many more. She is now using her enormous stage experience in her directing work.

Her debut as a director, a production of "Halka" in Havana (1971) became a sensation in Latin America, starting a whole series of directing successes for Fołyn at theatres in Poland and abroad. She has produced "Halka" many times (Mexico City 1974, Warsaw 1975, Bytom 1975, Ankara 1977, Novosibirsk 1984, Bytom 1985 - a production subsequently shown during a tour of Canada and the United States, Wrocław 1986, Cracow 1986, Curitiba, Brazil 1990, Osaka, Japan 1995). She has also directed other operas by Stanisław Moniuszko: "The Haunted Manor" (Bucharest 1979, Tokyo 1979, Cracow 1989, Samara 1994), "Verbum Nobile" (Wrocław 1984), Paria (Warsaw 1980, Havana 1991, ŁódŸ 1992) as well as "The Home Songbook" in Wrocław, 1984, and the Warsaw versions of this production: "At the Fireplace" (1987) and "The Home Songbook" (1996).

She has also staged other Polish and foreign operas. She was appointed artistic director of the Moniuszko Festival in Kudowa Zdrój in 1977. In 1988, she founded the Society of Lovers of Moniuszko's Music in Warsaw, and was elected its first chairman a year later. To quote Prof. Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, "one can say without exaggeration that not only no single Polish artist, but not even all of them together have done as much as Maria Fołtyn to consolidate the fame of the Polish national opera's founder outside his homeland.