The Kraków Opera present its first premiere of the 2024/2025 season!

She came from the wealthy family of the Dukes of Milan and was raised to be a ruler. She brought basil and low-cut dresses to Wawel. She founded towns, churches, hospitals and schools. She nurtured the development of transport and trade. She devoted her entire life to the affairs of the state – in a country that could not accept her ambitions. She left Poland hated by her subjects and in a deep conflict with her only son. She settled in the Duchy of Bari, where she soon died, poisoned by her own courtier. Her biography is a ready material for a film script or... an opera libretto. Thus, the Polish-Italian queen became the protagonist of the two-act opera Bona Sforza (text by Vincenzo de Vivo, music by Zygmunt Krauze). Directed by Michał Znaniecki (director) and Piotr Sułkowski (musical direction), it will present three faces of Bona: a hopeful young girl, a queen and wife of Sigismund I the Old, and, finally, a betrayed woman in the last years of her life. The co-production of the Kraków Opera and Teatro Petruzzelli opens a collaboration between Krakow and Bari – cities linked by the figure of an extraordinary woman, the most powerful queen on the Polish throne.

Direction: Michał Znaniecki                                                    
Musica direction: Piotr Sułkowski   
Set design: Luigi Scoglio        
Costumes: Małgorzata Słoniowska
Choregraphy: Inga Pilchowska
Video: Karolina Jacewicz
Lighting: Dawid Karolak

Premiere: 9 November 2024, Kraków Opera