World premiere: 17 December 2011, Warsaw Chamber Opera

Director, scenography: Ewelina Pietrowiak
Musical direction: Tomasz Szreder
Costumes: Małgorzata Słoniowska
Lights direction: Łukasz Różewicz

Cast:
Franz: Mariusz Godlewski
Father: Wiktor Gorelikow
Mather: Elżbieta Kaczmarzyk-Janczak
Otla: Aleksandra Kubas
Max: Jacek Jaskuła
Felicja: Joanna Moskowicz
Greta: Katarzyna Haras
Józia/Szewcowa: Dorota Dutkowska
Szewc: Rafał Majzner
Elli: Joanna Marszałek
Valli: Małgorzata Węgrzyn-Krzyżosiak
Fryzjer: Michał Kowalik
Klient: Jerzy Szlachic
Wyrostek: Bolesław Słowiński
Jana Słowik: Urszula Czupryńska
Franz, kid: Marek Łykowski

Libretto: Grzegorz Jarzyna i Zygmunt Krauze after Tadeusz Różewicz’s drama „The Trap”

The libretto was prepared by the composer in cooperation with Grzegorz Jarzyna and is based on the famous drama. Zygmunt Krauze had the idea of composing an opera based on one of the most important plays by Tadeusz Różewicz in 2006 after seeing “Pułapka” at the Kontakt festival in Toruń. It was a Hungarian presentation directed by Péter Gothár. “It made a great impression on me. I realized that this was a phenomenal subject for an opera. What’s more, I already knew how I should do it” – the composer said.

There was still the problem of obtaining the authors consent. Zygmunt Krauze met Tadeusz Różewicz in 1999 during the Fundacja Kultury awards ceremony when the poet received his prize. The evening at the Royal Castle was graced with a performance of five of Krauzes songs to poems by the laureate, who regarded the musical version of his poetry with great appreciation. A few years after the Pułapka opera proposal he waited a few months with the answer, but in the end the composer received a green light. I informed director Ewa Michnik about this, says Zygmunt Krauze, She immediately took up the idea.

Wroclaw Opera, in staging “Pułapka” have given a wonderful tribute to Tadeusz Różewicz. Zygmunt Krauze and Grzegorz Jarzyna carefully made the necessary abbreviations in the play, which is considered the poets most important dramatic achievement. They preserved its structure and layout of scenes. Zygmunt Krauze’s music does not blur the meaning of the words.”

Jacek Marczyński, Rzeczpospolita

Order: PWM