Stage Director

Ariadne on Naxos was the third opera written by Richard Strauss together with librettist Hugon von Hoffmansthal. Their collaboration had started with the expressionist Elektra, followed two years later by a drastically different, Mozartian Der Rosenkavalier.  Their next project drew heavily on literary inspirations. The one-act opera was meant to be shown at the end of Molièr’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, which Hoffmansthal had just translated into German. The version of Ariadne that prevailed to our times has a prologue setting the metatheatrical stage for the opera. 

Ariadne On Naxos

Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

The story of Cio-Cio-San is one of the most beautiful Puccini operas about love. To think that its 1904 premiere at Milan’s La Scala was one of the most bitter experiences in the composer’s life! The atmosphere in the auditorium was almost unbearable. ‘La Bohème!’ chanted the crowd, accusing Puccini of reusing his musical ideas, while booing and yawning ostentatiously. The performance was a complete and utter failure. The composer was savaged by the critics. Rewritten and restaged at the Teatro Grande in Brescia, the opera scored an ultimate triumph. The audience demanded encores of seven passages and the opera became a favourite with theatre programmers around the world.

Madama Butterfly

After 13 years, Mariusz Treliński again reaches for Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov , an operatic historical fresco, but also a psychological drama revealing the mechanism of gaining and consolidating power taken over by violence and deceit. The director first approached Boris Godunov in 2008, first staging it at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater in Vilnius, and a year later at the National Opera in Warsaw. The press wrote then that in Treliński's interpretation it was "a cold and raw, but suggestive story about a ruler killed by remorse" ("Ruch Muzyczny") and "a story about the rise of the tsar's power and his fall" (Gazeta Wyborcza). 

Boris Godunov*

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Verdi’s grand tale of ill-fated love, deadly vendetta, and family strife, with stellar soprano Lise Davidsen following a string of recent Met triumphs with her role debut as the noble Leonora, one of the repertory’s most tormented—and thrilling—heroines. Director Mariusz Treliński delivers the company’s first new Forza in nearly 30 years, setting the scene in a contemporary world and making extensive use of the Met’s turntable to represent the unstoppable advance of destiny that drives the opera’s chain of calamitous events.

EPSG:4326

La Forza del Destino

Lincoln Center

Mariusz Treliński's staging of Puccini's Manon Lescaut at the Welsh National Opera.

Manon Lescaut

Wales Millennium Centre

The richest man in Vienna is treating his guests to a spectacular celebration. For the occasion, he has commissioned a new opera seria, Ariadne auf Naxos. On the evening of the premiere, the composer discovers to his horror that he has to share the bill with a buffet, a comedy and a fireworks display. And as if that weren’t bad enough, the host introduces a change of plan: because the fireworks have to start on time, the tragedy and comedy are to be performed, not one after the other, but simultaneously! In this highly original opera, ‘high’ and ‘low’ art thus compete for the audience’s attention.

Stage Director

Mariusz Treliński

Events

Upcoming events

Jan 24 - Feb 9, 2027

Ariadne auf Naxos · La Monnaie / De Munt

Past events

4 - 27 Apr, 2025

Ariadne On Naxos · Polish National Opera

Jan 10 - Feb 2, 2025

Madama Butterfly · Polish National Opera

About

Mariusz Treliński hasn't added a bio