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

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.

Jerzy Butryn

Events

Past events

16 - 25 Jan, 2026

La bohème · Polish National Opera

Dec 29, 2024 - Feb 1, 2025

The Magic Flute · Polish National Opera

Future and recently performed repertoire

Colline in La bohème by Puccini

Polish National Opera

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