Krakow
Opera
Krakow Opera company has been the city’s
bastion of operatic music and stagecraft since its setting up in 1954.
Every year it gives some 200 performances, often playing to full house. Its diverse repertory includes the classics of world
opera by the likes of Mozart and Verdi as well as the outstanding
operatic output by the Polish composers, plus some contemporary
achievements too. Also, the Krakow Opera company has always staged
operetta and its dancers perform independent ballet shows. And
productions aimed at children’s audience, both musicals and ballets,
figure prominently in the repertoire of the Krakow Opera.
Until recently the Krakow Opera company put
on most of its productions in the Teatr Slowackiego theater at 1 Plac Sw.
Ducha square. In December 2008 the up to date Opera House has opened at
48 Lubicz street, one kilometer – or two tram stops – east of the
Old Town central district of Krakow.
The Krakow Opera Company, its original
Polish name 'Opera Krakowska' w Krakowie is controlled and
subsidized by the Malopolska
provincial government.
Opera season in Krakow
The Krakow Opera Company gives regular
performances, several times a week, from early October to mid June. Out
of season the Krakow Opera takes pride in staging the summer open-air
operatic extravaganzas in the city’s various historical settings such
the Wawel Royal Castle and the
Wieliczka Salt Mine, among other
locations. They are often a part of opera festivals organized by the
Krakow Opera and largely made up of its productions. Also, the opera
company tours regularly in other European countries in summer.
Krakow Opera singers, dancers, and
orchestra
The Krakow Opera Company consists of over
sixty soloist singers, roughly half of them employed full-time and the
rest on a freelance basis. Therefore the Krakow Opera can tap vast pool
of talents including some 25 sopranos, nearly ten mezzo-sopranos, over
twenty tenors, nearly twenty baritones, and a dozen of basses. And
occasionally a guesting prima donna and/or a starring tenor adds extra
glitter to the show.
The choir of the Krakow Opera Company can
boast nearly fifty full-time singers and its orchestra employs nearly
seventy musicians.
The ballet of the Krakow Opera Company
consists of about ten soloist dancers and the corps de ballet of nearly
twenty.
Krakow Opera House
The Opera House at 48 Lubicz street was
constructed in the years 2004 to 2008. The first opera premiere –
Krzysztof Penderecki's ‘The Devils of Loudun’ based on a
story by Aldous Huxley – took place in it on December 13, 2008. The
complex of the Krakow Opera House contains three theaters, foyer that
doubles as an exhibition and/or lecture hall, box offices, and a
restaurant, plus ample backstage areas as well as offices occupied by
the management of the Krakow Opera Company and its staff.
The main theatre of the Opera House, called
the Great Stage (‘Wielka Scena’ in Polish), has the floor space of
300 square meters and can seat 750 people. It boasts a
computer-controlled acoustic ceiling, a spacious stage with six
trapdoors, a moveable orchestra pit, and state-of-the-art stage
equipment. The Opera House also includes the second, small auditorium
(‘Chamber Stage, Scena Kameralna) with seating capacity of 100.
Another playhouse, called Na Antresoli (On the Mezzanine) can
seat 200 and it takes up the upper floor of the arch-roofed building of
the former Operetta House, earlier a riding school in at the outset of
the 20th century, incorporated into the present Opera House
complex.
The entire Krakow Opera compound has the
floor space of 12,000 square meters. Its blatantly modern architecture
was designed by Krakow’s architects Romuald Loegler, Piotr Urbanowicz,
and Grzegorz Dresler.
Contact info for the Krakow Opera Company
Postal address: "Opera Krakowska"
w Krakowie, ul. Lubicz 48, 31-512 Krakow, Poland.
Phone (+48) 122966100 (operator).
Website http://www.opera.krakow.pl
Email opera@opera.krakow.pl
Please see opera performances listed at our
Events web page with listings of shows and concerts in Krakow.
Tickets for the Krakow Opera
Box office at the opera house at 48 Lubicz
street is open from noon to 7 p.m. on weekdays and for two hours before
shows on weekends. You may contact it via email at tickets@opera.krakow.pl
and by phone at (+48) 122966260 and (+48) 122966261 or fax at (+48)
122966268.
Tickets for the Krakow Opera usually cost
about 80 zloty, 50 zloty, and 20 zloty for the first, the second, and
the third section of the auditorium respectively. Tickets for the best
seats, VIP chairs, are priced at around 120 zloty.
The
Slowackiego Theater,
built in 1893, doubled as Krakow's part-time opera house.
Click to see
updates on current and upcoming events. |
