Description

Alexander Medvedev’s libretto for the opera The Passenger based on the novel by Zofia Posmysz

Translated into Polish by: Agnieszka Kłopocka

Stage photos: Krzysztof Bieliński

Years after the World War II, while travelling on a transatlantic cruise to America, Liza, a former SS guard at Auschwitz, meets one of her victims. Stranded on the ship , without anywhere to hide, the two women are forced to face their past and relive their tragic memories.

‘When I saw the Arbeit macht frei sign I thought it wasn’t going to be that bad: I wasn’t afraid of hard work and so they’ll release me soon. After all, I helped my grandparents with grass harvesting many times,’ remembers Zofia Posmysz, a journalist, writer, and former prisoner at the Auschwitz and Ravensbrück concentration camps, whose 1962 book Pasażerka [The Passenger] served as the basis of a film by Andrzej Munk and Alexander Medvedev’s libretto for Mieczysław Weinberg’s opera under the same title (Polish premiere: 8 October 2010).