Mariusz Treliński

The Polish film, theatre, and opera director Mariusz Treliński graduated from the Director’s programme at PWSFTViT, the Polish State School of Film, Television and Theatre, in 1986 and subsequently directed his debut feature film Zad wielkiego wieloryba (The Rump of a Huge Whale) in 1987. Other films include Pożegnanie jesieni (Farewell to Autumn, 1990) based on a novel by Stanisław I. Witkiewicz, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and garnered him the “Andrzej Munk Award” and “Best Debut Award” from the Polish Minister of Culture; A Gentle Creature (1995) based on the Fyodor Dostoevsky story; and Egoists (2001). He also served as the artistic director of the Karol Irzykowski Film Studio from 1990-1992. Treliński produced the auteur spectacle, Lautréamont-Sny (Lautréamont-Dreams) with the set design by Andrzej Kreütz Majewski for the Studio Theatre in Warsaw in 1990, and Macbeth for the Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw in 1996. He has also directed for television, numerous commercials, and music videos. Treliński's opera debut came in 1999 with his highly acclaimed production of Puccini's Madame Butterfly premiered at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw in 1999, which was transferred by Plácido Domingo in 2001 to the Washington National Opera at The Kennedy Center. The production was revived again in 2006 with Maestro Domingo as conductor. In 2005, Maestro Valery Gergiev conducted his own version of that production for the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. In the season 2009 Treliński directed Madame Butterfly at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia. Other opera productions by Treliński include Szymanowski's King Roger (Polish National Opera, Warsaw, 2000), Verdi's Otello (PNO, Warsaw, 2001), Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (PNO, Warsaw, 2002; Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, 2011), Mozart's Don Giovanni (PNO, Warsaw, 2002; Los Angeles Opera – conducted by Kent Nagano, 2003; LA Opera – conducted by Hartmut Haenchen, 2008; Wrocław Opera, 2011), Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades (Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin – conducted by Daniel Barenboim with Plácido Domingo as Herman, 2003; PNO, Warsaw, 2004), Giordano’s Andrea Chénier (Washington National Opera – conducted by Plácido Domingo, 2004; PNO, 2005). Heavily symbolic and infused with mythic lore, Treliński’s spectacles are complex stories filled with realistic and psychological images of heroes and their visions. This combination is characteristic of his La Bohème (PNO, Warsaw, 2006; Washington National Opera, 2007), the second production of Szymanowski’s King Roger (Mariinsky Theatre – conducted by Valery Gergiev, 2008; Edinburgh Festival, 2008), Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, Vilnius, 2008; and the latest version at PNO, Warsaw, 2009), Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice (Slovak National Theatre, Bratyslava, 2008, PNO, Warsaw, 2009), Verdi's Traviata (PNO, Warsaw, 2010) and Puccini's Turandot (PNO, Warsaw, 2011). His production of Rachmaninoff’s Aleko and Tchaikovsky's Iolanthe premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre with Maestro Gergiev conducting, 2009; Baden-Baden Festival, 2009. Iolanthe was recorded on DVD at the Mariinsky Theatre with Anna Netrebko as the leading role and Maestro Gergiev conducting. Mariusz Treliński is the winner of the 2001 edition of the Karol Szymanowski Award, for his direction of King Roger at the PNO, Warsaw. In its decision, the panel of judges pointed out the innovativeness of the production and the faithfulness to the intention of Szymanowski's music. In October 2008, Treliński became the Artistic Director of the PNO in Warsaw for the second time. Picture: Jacek Poremba