“La clemenza di Tito” staged by Anna Sroka-Hryń opens the 34th Mozart Festival

On May 8, the Warsaw Chamber Opera inaugurates the 34th Mozart Festival with the premiere of “La clemenza di Tito” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This late royal drama, composed just a few months before the composer’s death, returns to the Warsaw stage as a brand-new production. The director of the performance is Anna Sroka-Hryń, known primarily for her dramatic and musical theatre roles.

This is a great and unexpected event for me, says the artist about her operatic debut. I have never imagined that my directorial and artistic work would be connected to something as exceptional as opera. She emphasizes that her encounter with opera as a theatrical form was both intense and creatively fulfilling: Opera is such a vast and marvelous phenomenon in which one can truly settle in artistically and be incredibly creative.

Mozart composed “La clemenza di Tito” in haste, as it was commissioned for the coronation festivities of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. The title character, Tito, must face an assassination attempt orchestrated by Vitellia and her lover Sesto, a close friend of the emperor. Despite the betrayal, Tito — torn between disappointment and forgiveness — chooses the latter, proving his clemency and moral greatness. And although Tito is the central figure in the narrative, Anna Sroka-Hryń highlights a different perspective: For me, the central figure is Sesto. It is his drama, his decision that determines the course of the entire opera. She also notes that the themes explored in the story were what drew her to the work: After reading the libretto and listening to the music, I found threads that truly intrigued me. […] I was captivated by the story itself and everything surrounding it. This multi-layered quality was incredibly compelling, and I wanted to dig deeper.