An opera that combines two simultaneous actions in two different periods of time and context and is an emotional earthquake. A spectacular setting that shows the spatial duality of a concentration camp and a holiday cruise, two antagonistic situations experienced by both protagonists of this moving opera about forgiveness.

Above, the deck of a transatlantic en route to Brazil.  Below, the horrifying memory of a concentration camp. Between both these settings are two women, trying to escape their past in search of a better future. Based on the autobiographical work by Zofia Posmysz – Polish journalist and novelist, a survivor of Auschwitz and Ravensbrück–, Die Passagierin represents an emotional cataclysm whose epicentre is the relationship between two women who were in Auschwitz in two very different positions: one was a prison guard and the other, a Jewish prisoner.

The story spread across Poland as a radio drama (The Passenger from Cabin 45, 1957), a novel (The Passenger, 1962) and a homonymous film (1963) before Shostakovich recognised its suitability for an opera. He recommended it to the Polish-born Soviet composer Mieczylaw Weinberg, who bore the dubious honour of having suffered the fury of anti-Semitism in both its Nazi and Stalinist variants.  Completed in 1968 and silenced for decades by the Russian authorities, this shocking opera comes to the Teatro Real backed by an irrepressible international fame.

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