Before Giacomo Puccini began composing La Bohème , which became one of the most frequently performed operas in the world, he was planning an opera about the life of Buddha. At the same time, he was drawn to the eroticism of La She-Wolf , set in Sicily. He was dissuaded from this latter project by Wagner's stepdaughter, Liszt's granddaughter, who was horrified by the story's intense brutality. With the help of the seasoned librettists Luigi Illica and Giovanni Giacosa, Puccini embarked on a free adaptation of Scenes from the Life of the Bohemians , a celebrated book by Henry Murger that unvarnishedly depicts the miserable existence of the Parisian "artistic proletariat." The book captivated me immediately. I felt like part of a family: freshness, youth, passion, gaiety, tears shed in silence, a love that gives joy and demands suffering. There are people, feelings, and heart. But above all, there is poetry, divine Poetry ," Puccini enthused, finding in Murger many familiar experiences. After the success of Manon Lescaut (1892), he was able to buy a villa in Torre del Lago, but he still remembered the hungry and cold student years he had spent in Milan.

La bohème

Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

Who doesn’t know the heart-breaking story of the young couple from Verona? Two people from feuding families who love each other so much that, after flouting tradition and their rigid family structures, they have the courage to pay for this outrage with death. Romeo and Juliet want to do more than just break the rules – they wish to love and to live freely. The version of William Shakespeare’s play, published in 1597, has been adapted many times for theatre, ballet, film, musicals and opera, including „Roméo et Juliette“ by Charles Gounod.

Roméo et Juliette

Semperoper Dresden

TOSCA

Who doesn’t know the heart-breaking story of the young couple from Mantua? Two people from feuding families who love each other so much that, after flouting tradition and their rigid family structures, they have the courage to pay for this outrage with death. Romeo and Juliet want to do more than just break the rules – they wish to love and to live freely. The version of William Shakespeare’s play, published in 1597, has been adapted many times for theatre, ballet, film, musicals and opera, including „Roméo et Juliette“ by Charles Gounod.

Older audiences of the Polish National Opera will undoubtedly remember Lech Majewski's splendid classical production of George Bizet’s most famous opera with monumental sets by Janusz Kapusta and costumes by designed by Hanna Bakuła. Twenty-three years after that premiere, the job of staging Carmen for the Teatr Wielki was taken on by Poland’s popular actor and director, Andrzej Chyra. This time round, the Warsaw audience was treated to a completely different and hardly traditional take on the masterpiece of the world opera repertoire.   

Carmen

A sovereign may do as he wishes. His entire surroundings depend on him, no-one is entitled to contradict him, all must suffer his moods. Only one may hold a mirror to him, is even obliged to criticise the ruler – the jester. But what happens when this fool neglects his most important task and puts himself at the service of the moral excesses exemplified by the tyrant? In his play Le Roi s’amuse (The King Amuses Himself), the French dramatist Victor Hugo went through this starting position with an unscrupulous fun-lover as the king, and a fool whose spiritual deformation has manifested itself in a hunchback.

Rigoletto

Max-Joseph-Platz

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.

Barbara Hanicka

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 30, 2025 - Jul 11, 2026

Roméo et Juliette · Semperoper Dresden

Mar 7 - Jul 31, 2026

Rigoletto · Bayerische Staatsoper

13 - 23 Jun, 2026

Romeo and Juliet · Polish National Opera

Past events

16 - 25 Jan, 2026

La bohème · Polish National Opera

Oct 30, 2025 - Jul 11, 2026

Roméo et Juliette · Semperoper Dresden

About

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