In Barrie Kosky's production of The Magic Flute, everything is straight out of a fairy tale, and every idea demonstrates the director's immense sense of humor, who must have thoroughly enjoyed the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When the red curtain opens, the audience sees only a white screen, where the frolics begin – the director imaginatively juggles, to the rhythm of Mozart's music, elements of silent film, slapstick comedy, and cartoon. The co-creators of this production – Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt of the "1927" ensemble – have combined film animation with live theater. The effect is dazzling. Here, Papageno, this bawdy simpleton, here portrayed as a sad clown in the style of Buster Keaton, gets drunk in the company of pink elephants honking cocktails from narrow glasses. The Queen of the Night is a giant spider, Monostatos appears as a pale vampire in a Count Dracula costume, and Pamina wears a black wig with fringe, which makes her resemble the actress and dancer Louise Brooks, a star of silent films.

The Magic Flute

Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

The legendary story of the lovers of Verona has inspired many composers of classical music. Works that employ the motif of Romeo and Juliet can be found in the oeuvre of Hector Berlioz and Pyotr Tchaikovsky. In the 20th century Sergei Prokofiev composed a ballet based on the Shakespearian play, while Leonard Bernstein drew on it to write the musical West Side Story. In the 19th century the trope of feuding families fascinated Vincenzo Bellini. His opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi, however, did not prove as popular as yet another operatic take on teh story: Charles Gounod’s Romeo i Juliet.

Romeo And Juliet Concert Version

Così Fan Tutte

Even though The Haunted Manor is considered Moniuszko’s most remarkable work, it is still hard to fathom the fact that the opera has been put before the Warsaw public over 1,500 times already. Written after Poland had been wiped from the map of Europe, the masterpiece enabled the desolate nation to go on a sentimental journey back to the time when its motherland was self-governing and free from external peril. A praise for family and native traditions evoking the happy days of yore won the hearts of the Polish audience yearning for its heritage. Before the tsarist censors realised the opera had been written to lift the Poles’ spirits and banned it after the third show in 1865, large portions of the public had managed to see the production and spread the word about the hope of restoring freedom that it offered. Unfortunately, Moniuszko did not live to see the next staging. A hundred years since its world premiere, the opera opened the first season at the newly restored Warsaw opera house following its destruction during the Second World War. It was no coincidence: in the course of the intervening decades The Hunted Manor became a symbol of Polish patriotism, Poland, and the strength of her nation that has risen from ashes many times it its history. 

The Haunted Manor

Everything in Barrie Kosky’s production of The Magic Flute seems like a fairytale and each subsequent idea is a proof of the director’s enormous sense of humour: the composer must have had a lot of fun working with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s score. The red curtain opens to reveal nothing but a white screen where all the frolics will soon take place – the director will juggle elements of silent film, slapstick comedy and cartoon art. His collaborators, Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt, also known as “1927”, mixed film animation with live theatre. The effect is stunning. Papageno, the boisterous bumpkin portrayed here as a sad clown channelling Buster Keaton, gets drunk onstage in the company of pink elephants quaffing cocktails from flute glasses. The Queen of the Night is a huge spider, Monostatos appears as a pale vampire dressed as Count Dracula, while Pamina’s black wig with a fringe makes her look like Louise Brooks, the iconic silent film actress and dancer.

Dead End is a singular work: an opera exploring current issues, written by two prominent Polish artists, Krzysztof Meyer and Antoni Libera.

Krzysztof Meyer is considered one of the most prominent present-day composers. He was a noteworthy student of Krzysztof Penderecki, then a pupil of Nadia Boulanger and Witold Lutosławski, and finally, a professor of composition of the Cologne University of Music, now retired. As an eminent expert on Shostakovich, he penned a monograph on the composer and composed the third act of The Gamblers. A composer of mainly large-scale symphonic pieces and chamber music, he also wrote a youthful opera after Stanisław Lem’s The Cyberiad. The composer has a number of prestigious awards to his name.

Dead End

Frivolous comedy or immoral farce? Controversy accompanied Così fan tutte almost from the beginning of the opera. The work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose world premiere took place in 1790 in Vienna, was apparently inspired by a real moral scandal that occurred in Paris at that time. Lorenzo da Ponte's libretto focuses on one thread. Don Alfonso challenges his younger colleagues: he bets with Ferrando and Guglielmo that their lovers - Dorabella and Fiordiligi - will not be able to remain faithful when they unexpectedly leave, leaving behind their fiancées. The intrigue is made more credible by the fact that Austria was then involved in a war with Turkey. The maid Despina is also involved in the men's conspiracy. After a sad farewell to their loved ones, Ferrando and Guglielmo return disguised as Albanians to test women's constancy.

Blind Track is a unique work - an opera on a contemporary, even current topic, written by two outstanding Polish artists: Krzysztof Meyer and Antoni Libera.

Blind Track

An opera about Auschwitz seemed unimaginable. And yet, it did. It was composed by Mieczysław Weinberg, a Polish-Jewish Varsovian who lost his family in the camp and of whom the opera's director, David Pountney, said that he "spent his life creating music in memory of his lost loved ones." Weinberg was inspired by the novel The Passenger (1962) by Zofia Posmysz. The author survived the camp. The decision to bear witness to the cruelty of the Holocaust was obvious to her. The Passenger describes a voyage on a luxury ocean liner, during which the Polish woman Marta recognizes the elegant woman, Lisa, an SS overseer from Auschwitz (the German woman's real name is Annelise Franz). Weinberg's music, in keeping with the action, is diverse, realistic, and symbolic at once; different when it accompanies conversations in the sun on the ship's deck, with the orchestra playing for the passengers to dance to, and different when the hell of Auschwitz unfolds below deck. The prisoners are of different nationalities, so their solo singing, as well as the seven-voice Song of Life and Death , is multilingual. The prisoners ' Requiem for the Black Wall echoes with the bell, Bach's Chaconne , and the camp orchestra. Weinberg's The Passenger, completed in 1968 in the Soviet Union, could not be performed there because its content was too reminiscent of Soviet labor camps. Only in 2006, after the composer's death, was it performed in Moscow in concert. Did staging an opera about Auschwitz seem impossible? And yet, it was. David Pountney produced it in 2010. First, there was the Bregenz Festival and Warsaw. Then London, Houston, New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Florida. And everywhere, every time: a stage bisected by light and sound. A cheerful, prosperous Europe. And the hell of the Holocaust. Its memory endures. The world cannot forget.

Passenger

The story of Romeo and Juliet is one of the most well-known myths in contemporary culture, appearing in dramatic theater, musicals, and film, among other works. As early as the 19th century, composers discovered the power inherent in the tragedy of the Verona lovers. One of them was Charles Gounod, one of the most popular French composers of his time, writing religious music, oratorios, and songs, and also working in the operatic arena. Romeo and Juliet , alongside Faust , is his most popular stage work. The composition gained notoriety at its Paris premiere, which took place during the 1867 World's Fair, quickly gaining fame not only in Europe but also in the United States.

Zuzanna Nalewajek

Events

Upcoming events

Dec 3, 2025 - Jan 4, 2026

The Magic Flute · Polish National Opera

8 - 12 Mar, 2026

Passenger · Polish National Opera

13 - 23 Jun, 2026

Romeo and Juliet · Polish National Opera

Past events

Dec 3, 2025 - Jan 4, 2026

The Magic Flute · Polish National Opera

16 - 18 May, 2025

Romeo And Juliet Concert Version · Polish National Opera

Future and recently performed repertoire

Stefano in Roméo et Juliette by Gounod

Polish National Opera

Druga Dama in The Magic Flute by Mozart

Polish National Opera

Christina in The Passenger by Weinberg

Polish National Opera

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