Performances

The works of Shakespeare have often been a source of inspiration for composers. The seventeen-years-old Mendelssohn was in such an awe of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that he created his famous “Concert Overture” to Shakespeare’s comedy, and several years later – at the request of a Prussian king – the music for the whole piece, including compositions as well known as “Scherzo” and “Wedding March”. Mendelssohn’s music – melodic, light, lyrical, romantic and chara

This is a story of English queen, the second wife of Henry VIII, who will be beheaded as a result of the next romance of the king. The opera portrays the protagonist in the period when she is devoid of mercy. The story revolves around court intrigues, supposed to prove the titular character’s alleged betrayal, which is an excuse to sentence her. The great and well-written libretto allowed Donizetti to develop his talent in composing attractive arias, duets and e

A spectacular show, full of ideas and surprises, harlequinades and wit in the spirit of commedia dell’arte, circus-like fantasy and the myth of the Minotaur, Venetian carnival and bacchanalia in the finale... The directors of the production were provoked to come up with this extraordinary blend by the fantastic idea underlying the libretto written by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, a celebrated German poet, considered second only to Goethe: that of combining high tand lo

“Candide” is one of the most popular, beside “West Side Story”, of Bernstein’s pieces for Broadway. Based on the outrageous philosophical tale by Voltaire, its musical layer plays on European operetta conventions and is brimming with witty humour and charm, but is also deeply ironic and sarcastic, just like the Enlightenment-era masterpiece which inspired Bernstein’s work. The eponymous character wanders through countries across all continents, embarking on incr

In its first version Carmen was written in a form similar to a comic opera, where songs and spoken parts intertwined. This fact, according to the then custom, blocked the work’s way to the stage of Great Paris Opera and the first night had to take place in the Comic Opera. However, the audience of that place preferred light and funny musical comedies and did not appreciate the tragic ending of Bizet’s work - this is one of the reasons of a cold reception of Carm

“Carmina Burana”, called by some people a stage cantata and by others – an oratorio, is based on secular mediaeval songs, discovered in 1803 in the Bavarian monastery Benediktbeuern. Carl Orff selected from this vast collection of texts, created by vagrants, students and wandering clerics, 24 songs and composed them in some sort of a libretto. The first part comprises songs celebrating nature and the awakening spring, the second part is a praise of Bacchus and t

The ballet rendition of the popular fairy tale of Cinderella, two mean stepsisters and a cruel stepmother has been prepared by Giorgio Madia, an eminent choreographer from Milan. The former soloist with the Bejart Ballet and the San Franciscoo Ballet, today he works on his own productions on the musical stages of Vienna and Berlin. “Cinderella” in his interpretation is enhanced with new meanings, while still retaining the universal sense of the tale. Combining s

It is believed that the theme of "The Marriage of Figaro" is the search for happiness in love, "Don Giovanni" is a treatise on the impossibility of love, while "Così fan tutte" tells about the imperfection of male-female relations, stretched between the idea of ​​love and the temptations of sex. Mozart completed his "Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti" or "So do all or School of lovers" at the end of 1789 and in January the premiere took place in Vienna's B

“Countess Maritza”, the second success of the Hungarian composer Emmerich Kálmána after “The Gipsy Princess”, secured him a permanent place among the most outstanding operetta authors of the 20th century. The piece tells about true love, free from any dependencies, such as property, position in the society or the social hierarchy, although these circumstances are discussed here most. Therefore, the piece is pretty enjoyable, as it incorporates the yearnings of a

A musical comedy in one act, presenting the ups and downs of a director setting up a new theatre team. An audition for the roles of comedians and primadonnas, bargaining for positions in the team, and of course the amounts of salaries end up in a series of quarrels between the singers, then between actresses, and all of this in an atmosphere of pressure from the banker, who is willing to finance the undertaking in exchange for employing his favourite. Ultimately, the theatre director tones down

It is considered the most outstanding opera of all Donizetti’s 70 coperatic works and the best Italian comic opera ever. It has been called “a jewel of charm, lightness and joyful humour”. This musical treasure is based on a bravado plot, getting the characters involved in risky adventures. As usual money, and of course love, are at stake, though in this case love comes second. This work of unique beauty represents the genre at its best. Jerzy Stuhr plays with t

The story is about extreme emotions that become a source of destruction. They devour a human and devastate his life. In “Pagliacci”, lust for love and jealousy, leading to a catastrophe, are the destructive forces, whereas in “Gianni Schicchi” these are money as well as greed, the latter being capable of any kind of wickedness and cruelty. The two titles were combined in the form of the theatrical performance. In “Pagliacci”, what was supposed to be a fiction wi

‘...freshness, youth, passion, cheerfulness, tears shed in silence, a love that gives you joy and makes you suffer,’ Puccini wrote about the perfect theme for an opera which he had found in Murger’s novel Scènes de la vie de bohème, which he himself could relate to through his own experience of several years spent as a student and artist at Milan’s conservatory. The duo of Giacosa and Illica magically turned the material into a superb libretto, not without some

“La Traviata”, based on the novel “The Lady of the Camellias” by Alexandre Dumas, fils, is a story of a fallen woman, a high-class Parisian courtesan and her salvation through a sacrificial offering of love and death. Krzysztof Nazar dispenses with the historical costume and the social context of the plot, focusing instead on the characters’ psychology, emotions and motivations. In his interpretation, Violetta Valéry faces the fact of terminal illness and the in

One of the most beautiful stories of unrequited love. It tells us of Geisha Cio-Cio-San’s passion to a US Navy Lieutenant which ends tragically for the girl owing to cross-cultural misalliance and differences. Since the 1904 premiere, the opera has belonged to the world repertoire. It has always been an ambition of the greatest soprano voices to interpret the main role. Obviously, the figure of Butterfly dominates the opera, and the scale of passions involved in

A one-act opera by Rimsky-Korsakov in a spirit of the realism of the Mighty Five; one of Alexander Pushkin's Little tragedies under the same title was used by the composer as the libretto, in an almost unchanged form, hence the work is sometimes referred to as "Pushkin's dramatic scenes". The contents refer to the alleged circumstances of death of W. A. Mozart - according to the legend, the genius composer was poisoned by his rival Antonio Salieri, jealous of his talent (Peter Schaffer's subsequ

“Mr Tralaliński” is a show aimed at children aged 6-10; it is a combination of music by outstanding Polish composers and of poetry written for children. The performance includes selected songs from the “Alphabet” by Witold Lutosławski, which the composer called children's songs and annotated: “to be performed for children and by children.” As described by Mieczysław Tomaszewski, musicologist: "There is simplic

The fantastic journey to the magical world of music and fairy will amaze children with its unique storyline. As one of the songs from the show says – “There are many theatres in the world, more or less serious, but the most unique for children is the theatre of imagination!”. We will meet an extraordinary Sorcerer – Muzomagius who can bring to stage various situations, emotions and characters from fairy tales.

The titular heroine is an archpriestess torn between her love for a man, a Roman invader, and her service to her own community. In Laco Adamik’s interpretation, the problems of power and servitude of the nation are the backdrop of the grand drama of love experienced by the protagonists. Love and betrayal, jealousy and lust for vengeance, combined with pride and nobility, that determine the course of action for the characters, show the depths of their humanity, b

“Ongaku”, a family-friendly spectacle maintained in fantasy style, is a musical tale of Janek – a teenager, who lost his mother and can’t find common ground with his father. He creates the eponymous Ongaku land in his imagination. The warrior Merodi arrives from the land and takes the boy into the world of secrets, search for courage and openness. A journey into three worlds begins. As legend has it, there are three stones of truth in the worlds. Thanks to them,

The operetta in which Offenbach, the master of the genre, made a parody of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice by breaking with the previous tradition of its rendition. The programme of the Krakow Opera includes this best known opera piece illustrating the great feeling Orpheus had for his deceased wife, Orpheus and Eurydice by Ch. W. Gluck. Offenbach’s adaptation portrays a married couple, bored with each other and searching for thrills outside of marriage with th

A masterpiece of tragic opera and a triumph of a 74-year-old composer who withdrew from opera for sixteen years after the success of Aida, convinced that he had accomplished all in this genre. Verdi’s great comeback to the stage of Milan’s La Scala in 1887 may be mainly attributed to Arrigo Boito, an accomplished author of librettos and composer of Mefistofele (staged by our Opera in 2014). Not only did Verdi welcome his suggestion to create an opera based on Sh

Written as a tribute to Alessandro Manzoni, a prominent Italian man of letters and patriot admired by Verdi, the Messa da Requiem was first performed one year after his death at the Milan Cathedral (1874) with a choir of 100 singers, an orchestra of 120 persons, La Scala singers as the soloists and the composer himself as the conductor. Sometimes compared to Mozart’s Requiem in terms of musical finesse, it is considered the highest achievement of the genre. A sy

One of the most popular works by Ludomir Różycki – only in the period of 1921-1929 it was staged as many as 300 times. Originally, the composer told the story of the legendary Polish sorcerer, using a symphonic poem, yet later he "translated" it into the language of ballet. The libretto was prepared by Różycki's wife Stefania (writing under the pseudonym of S. Ordon), on the basis of novel Master Twardowski by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski. Nine ballet paintings illustrate successive scenes from the m

The composer based his libretto on the old legends of a medieval minstrel-knight who found himself inside the Venusberg (mountain of Venus) where he then lost himself in love’s revelry. Still unhappy with his lot, he left the goddess to rejoin humanity, but when he failed to find his place among his own kind, he set out to request audience with the pope, to seek absolution and salvation. When working on his opera, abundant in theatrical elements and dense with m

“The Barber of Seville” by G. Rossini is an opera buffa considered to be the leading example of the genre. It is the most well-known and loved work by the composer, filled with beautiful music, based on an excellent libretto and presenting itself as “an inexhaustible well of theatrical humour,” as Piotr Kamiński wrote in his book “Tysiąc i jedna opera,” [“One-thousand and One Operas.”] The music director for Rossini’s opera is Tomasz Tokarczyk, while Jerzy Stuhr

A witty operetta with an upper-crust intrigue-driven plot, set in a 19th c. resort by Vienna. Old Vienna is a true lead of this operetta, one of the best and most popular in the world. Composing the work took Johann Strauss, the famous “king of the waltz,” a mere few weeks, and the world premiere turned out to be a huge success. A brilliant comedy of errors with an intriguing libretto in a perfect translation by Julian Tuwim continues to win admirers to this day

The pearl of the Italian opera buffa. The romantic adventures of the characters find a happy ending owing to their faith in the magical power of a mysterious potion as well as their firm conviction that the world is subject to an eternal order, which also includes tolerance for the weaknesses and errors of human nature, and love and kindness overcome. The piece, praised for the perfection of the script and the psychological credibility of the characters, still has something elusive about it, evo

Sandor Barinkay, the son of the former Governor returns to his castle. His companion, the Royal Commissioner Carnero reinstates the family land ownership to Sandor. The new heir is welcomed by an old Gypsy Czipra, telling him that he would regain property and love. His neighbour Zsupan Kalman, a pig breeder who is unable to seize Barinkay's land, decides to make his daughter Arsena marry Sandor. The girl, however, is in love with Ottokar, the son of her Governes

Two brothers returning from the battlefield make a promise to remain bachelors, but when they meet the beautiful ladies from the neighbouring manor, their vows become much harder to keep... Director, Laco Adamik, aims at revealing Polish national vices and show that, regardless of the epoch, these vices remain the same. The prologue and the epilogue refer to the present day, thus giving the show a modern frame

When son of the King of Clubs is struck by melancholy, laughter seems to be the only remedy. Despite various courtly conspiracies and power games, the Prince  is freed from his malady and sets out on a quest to find love, entrapped magically in three oranges. Basing his opera on a fairytale by Carlo Gozzi, Prokofiev depicted the world of magic and witchcraft with considerable distance. He created a multilayer work, balancing between surrealistic farce, grotesque

Although it has been over two hundred years since the premiere of "The Marriage of Figaro" which took place on 1 May 1786 in Vienna’s Burgtheater, the opera's attractiveness has not faded away. It is the masterpiece of the opera theatre. The great libretto was written by Lorenzo da Ponte and based on a brilliant comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais which turned out to have prophetic inclinations over the coming French Revolution. The music was wonderfully light and sen

One of the world’s most popular classical ballets is a story of a girl taken by her Christmas toy on a journey through a fairyland of wonders where anything is possible... The fairytale novella "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" was written in 1816 by the German poet and author E. T. A. Hoffmann. The ballet rendition of the story was conceived by the imagination of Marius Petipa, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky was commissioned to compose the music, following the success

One of the most intriguing operatic pieces that allures with mystery and offers endless interpretations. The dream of producers and performers. But also a challenge. Authors of the staging reach to the fantastic stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822), which inspired Offenbach’s opera. By introducing us to the modern worlds of civilisation, real however looking ahead, they translate them into the contemporary language. Realism and fantasy, contemporaneity and a

A story of two brothers, separated by fate and then pitted against each other by their love for the same woman and by political turbulences – both unaware of their brotherhood... The libretto of "Il trovatore", although based on a true story harking back to medieval Spain, torn apart by civil wars, is considered excessively complicated, unclear, mostly for this reason that the events which are the most decisive for the plot take place offstage and are only related by the characters. The great su

During the Carnival season, Selim, the eponymous Turk, arrives in Italy in search of entertainment.  In the prevailing merriment and excitement it is no longer possible to tell who is crazy about whom: whether he about the beautiful women that he encounters or they about him, seeking exotic experiences. The constellations of love triangles and rectangles become ever more complicated through a series of misunderstandings, errors, and disguises – all immersed in t

“Tosca” is a part of the standard opera repertoire and has allowed many singers to create unforgettable characters. The opera features some of Puccini’s most splendid arias, “Recondita armonia...” and “E lucevan le stelle...”, interwoven with the story of a tragic love between the singer Tosca and the painter Cavaradossi, who fall prey to the police chief Scarpia’s machinations. As with every great work of worldwide fame, the producers are faced with the danger

A tale about a princess who orders, in cold blood, her suitors to be beheaded if they fail to guess her three riddles. Calaf, the son of a dethroned Tatar king, who has just arrived and witnesses the cruel Turandot sentencing yet another of her victims - the Persian Prince - accepts the challenge. Ignoring the pleas of his father who is spending exile in the company of servant Liù, whom he just came across in a crowd awaiting the execution, Calaf solves the three riddles. Turandot despairs and r

Opera Wanda by Joanna Wnuk-Nazarowa based on the lyrics of Wanda. Object in Six Images, a dramatic mystery play by Cyprian Kamil Norwid. The world premiere will take place on 10th September 2021 in the Arcaded Courtyard of the Wawel Royal Castle, thus constituting a part of the celebration of the Cyprian Norwid Year established by the Senate of the Republic of Poland.Not only will it be the world's second opera (after Antonin Dvořák's Vanda) which was completed and staged as devoted