French Premiere of Weinberg’s ‘The Passenger’
Although composed in 1968, The Passenger by Mieczysław Weinberg only reached the operatic stage in its complete form in 2010, at the prestigious Bregenz Festival. Based on the novel by Polish writer and Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz, the opera has since come to be recognized as a significant musical work of the second half of the twentieth century. Its subject—memory, guilt, and the enduring trauma of the Holocaust.
January 2026 marks the French premiere of this landmark opera at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse. Weinberg, a Polish-Jewish composer who spent most of his life in the Soviet Union, composed The Passenger under the artistic encouragement of Dmitri Shostakovich. The work was subsequently censored by Soviet authorities and remained unperformed during the composer’s lifetime. Its rediscovery has revealed a powerful score that moves between irony and tragedy, barbarity and fragile hope, employing a striking musical contrast between the world of a luxury ocean liner and the horrors of Auschwitz.
The Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse presents an acclaimed production from the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck, directed by Johannes Reitmeier and conducted by Francesco Angelico, with the Orchestre national du Capitole and the Chorus of the Opéra national du Capitole. Following the recent success of Bruno Mantovani’s Voyage d’automne, The Passenger continues the Capitole’s engagement with challenging contemporary opera and with works that confront the darkest chapters of European history.
JANUARY 23-29, 2026
Mieczyslaw Weinberg – The Passenger
Théâtre du Capitole
Pl. du Capitole, 31000 Toulouse, France
TICKETS (€10–€90): here
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