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

Colin delights his friends with dishes prepared by his cook Nicolas, invents a pianocktail to match drinks to melodies, and dreams of true love. When Chloé enters his life, happiness seems complete. But a sinister water lily slowly grows in the young woman's lung.

Foam of the Daze

Opéra de Lille

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.

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

“No human dies for himself alone. One dies for others. Maybe some die instead of others. Who knows?“ (Sœur Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites). Few operas focus on the confrontation with one’s own mortality as much as Francis Poulenc’s opera about an order of Carmelite nuns in the turmoil of the French Revolution, which premiered in 1957. The story revolves around the young Blanche, who – plagued by severe anxiety since birth – finds shelter in a convent. But the time of security ends abruptly when the Revolutionary Committee breaks up the convent and forbids the community from practicing its rites. The sisters swear themselves to martyrdom, but Blanche’s fear of death drives her to flee. Eventually she manages to overcome herself: As she follows her sisters to the scaffold, her fear is extinguished in the face of death. In her production of this hybrid of thriller, discourse opera and holy mass, director Ewelina Marciniak, known for her feminist readings, focuses on the dynamics of a community of women struggling for communication and humanity in the midst of terror. And even if the supernatural “Salve Regina“ of the Carmelite nuns on the scaffold leaves no doubt that this opera is a fervent profession of faith by the Catholic Poulenc, the nuns’ willingness to make sacrifices raises questions: where are the boundaries between solidarity, faith and fundamentalism? How lonely is it to die in our secularized contemporary world? Under the musical direction of Cornelius Meister, Poulenc’s powerful music becomes a unique event.

Dialogues des Carmélites

Stuttgart Opera

Imagine being immortal and witnessing four centuries of history firsthand—first as a man, then as a woman...

Or­lan­do

Schiller Theater

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.

Julia Kornacka

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 30, 2025 - Jul 11, 2026

Roméo et Juliette · Semperoper Dresden

Mar 7 - Jul 31, 2026

Rigoletto · Bayerische Staatsoper

Mar 29 - Apr 18, 2026

Dialogues des Carmélites · Staatsoper Stuttgart

May 16 - Jun 6, 2026

Orlando · Komische Oper Berlin

13 - 23 Jun, 2026

Romeo and Juliet · Polish National Opera

Past events

16 - 25 Jan, 2026

La bohème · Polish National Opera

5 - 15 Nov, 2025

Foam of the Daze · Opéra de Lille

About

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