A double bill of the operas "lolanta" and "Bluebeard's Castle" was staged Jan. 29 at New York's Metropolitan Opera, directed by Polish director Mariusz Treliński.

A joint production by the Wielki Theater/National Opera in Warsaw and the Metropolitan Opera, Treliński's pairing of "Iolanta" by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and "Bluebeard's Castle" by Bela Bartók had its premiere in Warsaw in 2013. The version in New York City starred celebrated opera singers, including Polish tenor Piotr Beczała as Vaudemont and Russian soprano Anna Netrebko as Iolanta. The Met Orchestra was conducted by Valeriy Gergiev from Russia, and in "Bluebeard's Castle" the part of Judith was sung by Nadja Michael from Germany. The Metropolitan Opera was packed and when the show was over, the audience gave the performers a standing ovation. The performance was broadcast on almost 70 television channels around the world. Before the curtain went up at the Met, Treliński said he had been an outsider when he first started working in opera. "I had two goals: to shatter the sentimentality and kitsch that pervaded opera and to open opera to the contemporary era, so its dynamics and temp