A director, playwright, set designer, and teacher, he studied at the University of Bologna with U. Eco and with G. Strehler at the Teatro Piccolo di Milano. He made his debut at La Scala in Milan at the age of 24. The author of over 200 productions, he has worked for over 25 years on the world’s most important opera stages, including in Poland, Italy, France, Spain, China, Argentina, Croatia, Hungary, and Cuba. He specializes in large-scale outdoor productions, which he has produced in stadiums, islands, and parks, including for the Israeli Masada Opera Festival under a multi-year contract. Alongside Poland’s most important opera houses, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the National Opera in Budapest, and Lviv are the theaters to which he most frequently returns, collaborating with leading soloists and conductors, such as D. Oren, P. Domingo, J. Cura, M. Benini, and P. Beczała. A special place in his artistic output is occupied by theatrical, educational, and engagement projects for groups affected by social exclusion. He has received numerous awards for these initiatives, including the Puglia Region Medal for Artistic and Social Merit (2008) and the Annual Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for projects implemented with the Jutropera Foundation as part of the European Capital of Culture Wrocław (2016). He lectures in opera directing at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw and the Academy of Music in Katowice, and also teaches at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. He was one of the youngest directors of the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw and the Poznań Grand Theatre. In 2023, he served as Deputy Artistic Director of the Wrocław Opera. His artistic achievements include the greatest and most important operas by composers such as G. Verdi, G. Donizetti, W.A. Mozart, G. Rossini, S. Moniuszko, and K. Penderecki. Alongside his extensive repertoire and well-known titles, Michał Znaniecki also readily reaches for unfamiliar operas. Among them are old, forgotten, or lost operas, which he gives new life through artistic discoveries and reconstructions. The artist has won numerous awards. His Polish musical productions have received several Golden Masks in various categories. For his production of P. Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, the director received the Premios Lı́ricos Teatro Campoamor award for the best premiere production of the year in Spain (2011). He has also been awarded the Croatian National Theatre Award for best opera performance of the year (A. Boito’s Mefistofele, 2014) and the “Italian Opera Oscar,” the Premio Abbiati special award for the 200.com project – Pagliacci (2015). He received the Golden Mask for the performance of the year – Ch. Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet (2017), and the J. Kiepura Music Theatre Awards for best director (2021) and best performance (2024). He was awarded the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis – from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. He was an Ambassador of the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016. He was the founder of the Festival Opera Tigre in Argentina. At the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic, the artist directed F. Lehár’s The Merry Widow, P. Łukaszewski’s Easter Diptych: Via Crucis / P. Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, and The Books of the Magic Flute. He is the initiator and artistic director of the International Festival “Metastasio Bez granic.”