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.

Romeo and Juliet

Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

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.

Elizabeth Wróblewska

Events

Past events

13 - 23 Jun, 2026

Romeo and Juliet · Polish National Opera

8 - 12 Mar, 2026

Passenger · Polish National Opera

Future and recently performed repertoire

Gertrude in Roméo et Juliette by Gounod

Polish National Opera

Vlasta in The Passenger by Weinberg

Polish National Opera

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