Passionate love – poisoned by political power struggles. Deep friendship – strained and destroyed by the interests of the state. In the power struggles of ancient Rome, the personal and the political are so closely intertwined that powerlessness, humiliation, desire, arbitrary empowerment and degradation are ever-present. And yet the questions raised in this opera are no less pressing today: Can there be a ruler who exercises the power entrusted to them responsibly and humanely? Can authority be benevolent? Or is the face that appears human and benevolent merely a
mask, behind which the even more insidious grimace of evil is concealed?

Shortly before his death, and almost at the same time as *The Magic Flute*, Mozart composed *La clemenza di Tito* (*The Clemency of Titus*), perhaps his most beautiful work – and once again proved himself to be a profound connoisseur of the human soul, to whom nothing human is alien. But also as a politically sceptical figure in search of a glimmer of hope.

And the people? In their first production at the MiR, Krystian Lada and his team also explore the perspective of those who must endure the power games of those in authority. Is there hope for them, too?

Passionate love – poisoned by political power struggles. Deep friendship – strained and destroyed by the interests of the state. In the power struggles of ancient Rome, the personal and the political are so closely intertwined that powerlessness, humiliation, desire, arbitrary empowerment and degradation are ever-present. And yet the questions raised in this opera are no less pressing today: Can there be a ruler who exercises the power entrusted to them responsibly and humanely? Can authority be benevolent? Or is the face that appears human and benevolent merely a
mask, behind which the even more insidious grimace of evil is concealed?

Shortly before his death, and almost at the same time as *The Magic Flute*, Mozart composed *La clemenza di Tito* (*The Clemency of Titus*), perhaps his most beautiful work – and once again proved himself to be a profound connoisseur of the human soul, to whom nothing human is alien. But also as a politically sceptical figure in search of a glimmer of hope.

And the people? In their first production at the MiR, Krystian Lada and his team also explore the perspective of those who must endure the power games of those in authority. Is there hope for them, too?