The world premiere of La bohème was in Turin on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Since then, La bohème has become part of the standard Italian opera repertoire and is one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide.Before Giacomo Puccini sat down to write La bohème, which turned out to be one of the world’s most popular operas, the same topic caught the interest of another composer who had risen out of poverty and wanted to showcase ‘real l...
Philosophical fable about love, romantic and desperate tragicomedy – Così fan tutte is all that. Borrowing the subject of the Marriage of Figaro from Beaumarchais and Don Juan from Molière, Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte came up with an original subject. The unique plot is based on themes seen repeatedly and cultivated in literature and theatre since their origins, from Ovid to the Commedia dell’Arte.A bittersweet meditation on women’s faithfulness against a backdrop of disguises, fa...
One of the greatest operas ever written. Mozart’s timeless classic concerns the search for truth and reason, love and enlightenment. It follows the adventures of Prince Tamino and the bird-catcher Papageno on their quest to rescue Pamina. To assist their mission, they are given musical instruments enhanced with magical powers.
Director Paweł Szkotak had no doubt that the opera’s magnificent music and brilliantly crafted libretto offered both the creative team and the performers an opportunity to create a lively and entertaining production. And that is exactly what the premiere of Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, which opened the 30th Bydgoszcz Opera Festival, proved itself to be.
Falstaff is a comic opera in three acts by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian-language libretto was adapted by Arrigo Boito from the play The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV by William Shakespeare. The work premiered on 9 February 1893 at La Scala, Milan.
Faust is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, draws upon Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s two-part play based on the German legend of a man who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge and power.Gounod’s opera does not attempt to match the thematic breadth or the philosophical sophistication of Goethe’s sprawling masterpiece, concentrating instead on Faust’s romantic encounter with Marguerit...
Moniuszko finished composing Halka in 1847 and attempted to stage it in Warsaw. However, he performed the first two-act version in Vilnius in 1848. Only 11 years later, on January 1, 1858, the Warsaw premiere of the four-act version of this most outstanding Polish romantic opera took place, which was greeted with great enthusiasm. This is the fourth production of Halka in the history of Opera Nova - this time prepared by representatives of the young generation of theater artists. Only the m...
Marie Duplessis—the woman admired by the entire Jockey-Club, supported by some of the wealthiest men in Parisian society, and the lover of many influential and celebrated figures, including the artists Franz Liszt and Alexandre Dumas (fils)—was known for her love of luxury and… camellias. Her life inspired the literary character Marguerite Gautier, the heroine of the nineteenth-century bestseller The Lady of the Camellias. The novel later became the basis for the libretto of Giuseppe Verdi’s La ...
Madama Butterfly is the first Puccini's opera set in an exotic environment. While composing this beautiful opera, the composer studied and researched music (type of melody, instrumentation) and traditions of Japan. Our heroine, Madama Butterfly, is most profoundly depicted in psychological terms: as a joyful, hopeful fiancée, a trusting and faithful wife, a desperate, abandoned woman, calm and sure of her decision before her death - in every state, she fascinates the listener and dominates the s...
The score bears the unmistakable hand of a true master. Brilliant in style, it stands among the finest examples of opera buffa. The enthusiastic response of the Milanese audience following the world premiere in 1832 was soon echoed on other stages, and within little more than a decade the opera had conquered the world.Today, L’elisir d’amore is one of the cornerstones of the standard operatic repertoire. The work carries the mark of genius: although it contains scenes of pure comedy, they are no...
In this opera, Christoph Willibald Gluck turned to the well-known Greek myth of Orpheus, who, after Eurydice’s death, is given the chance to descend into the underworld of Hades and restore his wife to the world of the living.In Opera Nova’s production, directed and choreographed by Robert Bondara, Orpheus’s journey in search of Eurydice becomes a descent into the subconscious of a man unprepared for the loss of his beloved, as well as an attempt to navigate the longing for someone closest to hi...
Dramat Wiktora Hugo to fantazja na tematy historyczne, oddająca ducha czasów i obyczajowość renesansowego dworu francuskiego Franciszka I. Król słynący z miłosnych przygód, jego słynny błazen Trybulet (uwieczniany w literaturze) i inne historyczne postaci zostali negatywnie przedstawieni przez pisarza. Hugo wprowadził do swego utworu akcenty antymonarchistyczne - dramat powstawał w czasie powstania republikańskiego (1832 r.) przeciw reżimowi króla Ludwika Filipa.