Jaromir Trafankowski

After returning from the war, two brothers resolve never to marry so that they can serve their country. But they find their match when they meet two strong-willed sisters living in a mysterious manor.

A great love that must defy prejudice. A secret kept hidden for years and a surprising denouement. The formidable force of memories unveiling the mysteries of the past. Stach comes from a wealthy family, Chicha is a Gypsy. Social conventions, intolerance and stubbornness stand in the way of their happiness. Will Stach and Chicha end up together? Will the family secrets come out? Is a happy ending always happy? Poznań Opera stage a rarely performed opera by Stanislaw Moniuszko, shown for the first time in a full musical arrangement prepared by its conductor Rafał Kłoczko. Ilaria Lanzino, an Italian director of the young generation, known for her unconventional and coherent productions, directs Jawnuta to designs by Dorota Karolczak.

Destined for the convent, the young Manon falls head over heels in love with a handsome stranger and decides to flee with him. Yet aspiring to a life of wealth and luxury, she ends up throwing herself into the arms of a rich nobleman. Can she forget her true love? Puccini’s adaptation of the novel by Abbé Prévost had a complicated gestation. An alarmingly long list of librettists succeed each other in trying to satisfy the composer’s demands in terms of dramatic structure and fine verbal detail. Was Puccini struggling perhaps to make his opera sufficiently different from Massenet’s on the same subject? Puccini probably never reached a ‘definitive’ form of this opera but it was his first international success and arguably the first in which the composer found his voice as a musical dramatist. Opera Poznań has entrusted their new production - streamed live on the opening night - to a former winner of the European Opera Directing Prize, Gerard Jones, and conductor Marco Guidarini.