Barbara Wysocka
© Adam Tuchliński
rare acuity and precision
‘Barbara Wysocka delivers a strong, deliberately disturbing vision of the piece. She searches with rare acuity the psychology of each character, even the most secondary. Her precise, determined staging leaves nothing to chance’
Barbara Wysocka is an actress, theatre and opera director who creates experimental multidisciplinary works combining installation, drama, documentary and music. Born in Warsaw, she graduated from both the acting and directing departments of the State Drama School in Kraków. Previously she studied violin at the Hochschüle für Musik, in Freiburg. In the academic year 2019-2020 she was Cornell Visiting Professor of Theatre at Swarthmore College.
Wysocka has been honoured with the Paszport Polityki for her debut opera production Glass’ The Fall of the House of Usher, the main acting award in the competition for staging early works of Polish literature for Idalia in Fantazy; and the Golden Yorick for her production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
On the opera stage she has directed Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Bregenzer Festspiele, and for Polish National Opera: Glass’ The Fall of the House of Usher, Dusapin’s Medeamaterial, the world premiere of Knapik’s Moby Dick, Różycki’s Eros i Psyche and Puccini’s Tosca. Her debut at Opéra de Lyon in 2023 with Kát’a Kabanová was greeted with universal critical acclaim.
Current plans include returns to Polish National Opera, debuts at the Staatsoper Berlin with Daniel Barenboim, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, La Monnaie, and the Opéra national de Paris; and she will make her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York with a world premiere commission from Polish National Opera.
‘It makes sense to compare opera to film, because both use image, emotion and precision as their main channels of expression. I try to pay attention to the emotional story, no matter if I'm in front of the camera or directing a singer’
