Magic Mountain

The sale of the second pool of tickets for the performances of Czarodziejska Góra on November 21 and 22 and tickets for the premiere performance on November 20 will start on September 4 at 12:00

Opera in two actsLibretto: Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk by Tomasz MannPremiere: 20/11/2026, Nowy TeatrProduction: Nowy Teatr, Teatr Wielki - National Opera Coproduction: Narodowe Centrum Kultury, Malta Festival Poznań Original German language version

The premiere of Pavel Myketin's Magic Mountain was in 2015 an event of the season. The libretto based on the novel by Tomasz Mann was prepared by playwright Małgorzata-Sikorska Miszczuk, winner of the most important literary awards. The opera is not a summary of a famous book, but a story inspired by Mann's work that captures its essence — focusing on the atmosphere of Europe on the eve of the great catastrophe that was World War I.

Magic Mountain is a story about love, betrayal, revenge and death. Its main character is Hans Castorp arriving for treatment at the Berghof sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland. The purpose of the stay turns out to be ultimately different from the intended one — instead of the expected recovery, Hans prepares for his departure. The authors preserve the entire pleiad of characters from Mann's novel, creating a moral and philosophical context for his maturation, and at the same time try to diagnose the state of the world, which may in some respects resemble the chaotic contemporary reality existing in constant tension and anticipation of an event that could change the course of history.

The starting point for the libretto is the heroine mentioned only by Mann — a deceased American who occupied a sanatorium room before Hans. In the opera, he becomes an important symbolically character, a kind of bridge for the main character between life and death. The atmosphere of the opera is permeated with dreamism, thanks to which we can move into a reality full of symbols, in which it is not entirely clear where the world of the living ends and the world of the dead begins.

Myketin's music corresponds perfectly with the multilingualism of the libretto, as well as the eclecticism of the present. There was a place for different styles and idioms: both serious arias, swinging chorus, rock improvisation, pop song, as well as the sounds of the city and nature. The whole was inscribed within the framework of an electronic sound layer with unrelenting precision measuring time and co-creating an extraordinary experience of the world on the border of waking and dreaming. The uniqueness of the project is evidenced by the radical decision of the composer to abandon the orchestra playing live and to use only the spatial sound coming from the speakers, thanks to which he manages to create a rich sound palette combining instrumental and electronic sounds.

After its premiere, the opera Mykietyna directed by Andrzej Chyra and set by Mirosław Bałka was hailed as one of the most important Polish musical performances of the 21st century.

Performances take place in the Nowy Teatr at 10/16 Madalińskiego Street in Warsaw