A spectacular show, full of ideas an 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 low arts, opera seria and buffa. And all this was employed to tell a story of love, both the ideal, romantic one, and that which is more mundane, sensual. The result was an intriguing work, full of fancy and imagination, with music which gathered raving reviews. After premiering in its final version in 1916, Ariadne gained a permanent place in the repertoires of music theatres the world over and is still doing very well today. The present production is, however, the debut of both the title and the composer on our stage.

A trip through Sin City. Roaming the night's pleasure quarters, the hero traverses the most obscure meanders of his soul, becomes confronted with his own suffering, before finally going back – out of the darkness of unconsciousness – into the realm of his childhood. The substance of these peregrinations is provided by Arnold Schönberg's music: Brettl-Lieder, or songs written for a Berlin cabaret, and the legendary Pierrot lunaire (‘Moonstruck Pierrot’), existential, nostalgic in nature. The juxtaposition of such dissimilar works creates a new tale, which combines two opposite attitudes towards life, affirmative and contemplative, producing a picture of human nature in the process of experiencing the pain and the joy of existence.

Schönberg's compositions are performed by the Chamber Ensemble of the Krakow Opera Orchestra.

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 Carmen. However the more important reason for an initial distaste of the public and critics for the opera was its innovative content. Bizet broke the unwritten tradition according to which topics of operas were to be taken from the world of myths and legends or old historical periods and life of the so called “higher spheres”. Instead of conventional heroes, often full of artificial pathos, the composer brought up living and contemporary people - soldiers, smugglers and female workers from a cigar manufactory.

As the time went by, incredible variegation of music, its vigorous temper and peculiar “Spanish” exoticism, artistry and elegance, splendor and brilliance, combined with an excellent libretto contributed to a complete triumph of the work.

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 subtle lyricism with irony and a sense of humour, the production uses an original choreographic language and proves surprisingly spectacular. The music is compiled from fragments of Rossini's operatic and chamber compositions. This moving performance of superb comic quality is bound to delight young and adult audiences alike.

Tchaikovsky described his romantic opera, based on Pushkin`s novel in verse of the same title, as lyrical scenes, underscoring the poetic nature of the work. The directors of this staging have followed the same path; without highlighting any realistic details, they have conjured up a poetic, lyrical tale of lost illusions, of time which heals all wounds but also takes one ever farther away from the excitements of youth, strips all the characters in the story of their dreams and frustrates their desires. Metaphoric images, based on the motif of melting ice, seem to complement the poignant music, vibrating with passions, expressing yearning, sadness and regret.

The Krakow Opera Choir, conducted by Zygmunt Magiera, will perform the great pieces of choir music and fragments from the all–time favourite operas, including G. Verdi’s “Nabucco”, G. Donizetti’s “The Elixir of Love”, G. Bizet’s “Carmen”, R. Wagner’s “Lohengrin”, and S. Moniuszko’s “Halka”. 

Halka is the first Polish national opera. The attractiveness of this amazing piece, for many generations of performers and viewers, lies primarily in its very Polish message, both in the musical sphere and in its manner of portraying reality. The author of the current staging, Waldemar Zawodziński, strived to maintain the traditional values while, at the same time, shying away from the common trappings of genre and overly-folksy stylisation. In Zawodziński’s interpretation Halka is not the story of a poor girl hurt by a lord, but a story of blind love going against the social order and convention. This universalised image of the world brings the two-century-old story closer to the modern times, reviving its timeliness in the social and moral sense.

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 inevitability of the end of life. Disillusioned, she decides to enjoy the remaining time to the maximum. But that is exactly when she encounters true love, and with it values that change her vision of the world and people. The production addresses the theme of love tinged with a sense of passing away, it shows the human strength of character and struggle against the fear of death, it tells a tale of sacrifice and loneliness, of the attitudes and choices we face regardless of times or place.

Cedric, a boy of eleven, unexpectedly becomes Lord Fauntleroy and future heir to great estates. His grandfather, an English aristocrat, excitable and selfish, orders his only grandson back from America to his castle in England. Contrary to the prevailing opinion, Cedric considers his grandfather an epitome of goodness and nobleness, and the man begins to try hard not to fail the child’s expectations. As a result, the boy ‘s trustfulness and faith in goodness bring the old Earl back into the world of the loving and the loved. This production is intended for audiences of all ages. It will make children realise the value of certain behaviours, helping them put their own worlds to an order. The adults will be taken back to their childhood stories, still true today because, as Steven Markwick points out, one is never too old or powerful to learn humility and love.

The opera tells the story of a relationship between a geisha Cio-Cio-San and a lieutenant of the United States Navy. While the American never takes their marriage seriously, Cio-Cio-San, like Penelope, remains faithful to her beloved. The long time spent on waiting for his return and her fervent hopes confronted with the cruel truth bring the heroine to a tragic end. The Krakow staging was prepared by Waldemar Zawodziński (direction and stage design), Tomasz Tokarczyk (music direction), Maria Balcerek (costumes) and Janina Niesobska (choreography and stage movement).

An educational spectacle in which the orchestra and soloists of the Krakow Opera will stage fragments of the greatest opera, operetta, musical and ballet works. The purpose of the performance is to show young spectators how a theatre spectacle is created and to introduce them to names and the most eminent composers and performers of these works through an anecdote and an attempt to define genres of a musical theatre.

The host of the spectacle will be Marek Pacuła - a famous Krakow-based satirist, for years related to the artistic centre “Piwnica pod Baranami”, currently a journalist and an announcer. The spectacle will feature fragments of The Haunted Manor, Carmen, Madama Butterfly, The Merry Widow, Don Giovanni, Swan Lake and other.

The opera’s libretto is based on the Greek myth. Eurydice, wife of a Thracian singer Orpheus, is bitten by a viper and dies. To get her back, Orpheus descends to the underworld. He almost succeeds in leading Eurydice out of the dead but he breaks a divine ban, looks at her and loses his beloved forever...

Orpheus and Eurydice is the thirtieth of 107 operas left by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) ? German composer, Kapellmeister at the Emperor’s court in Vienna, author successful also in Paris and acclaimed to have been the reformer of opera.

Giorgio Madia, an Italian by birth, working as a choreographer for the most important European stages, the author of Cinderella staging at the Krakow Opera a few years ago, is preparing Orpheus and Eurydice (the French version) for the first time, especially for the Krakow Opera. It will be both an opera and a ballet spectacle. Every opera character has its counterpart in a character from the ballet ground.

An evening in “two movements”: the first, based on the Second Piano Concerto by Sergei Rachmaninoff, is a tale of looking for love in its romantic version; in the latter, the love story becomes denser, turning into a drama of jealousy and desire – it is the Carmen suite, after G. Bizet’s opera, written in 1967 by the contemporary Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin for his wife, Maya Plisetskaya, a prima ballerina at the Bolshoi Theatre. In his own version of Carmen, Ondrej Šoth, a celebrated Slovak choreographer, has confined the tale of pernicious desire to the characters of Carmen, José, Escamillo and Micaela. Their actions are catalyzed by Death, the fifth character of the drama. The stage set and the costumes have been prepared by Andrii Sukhanov, a dancer, choreographer and stage designer, director of the Ballet Company of the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava.

This is a co-production of the Krakow Opera and the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava.

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 synthesis of the Italian operatic style and religious music, Verdi’s Requiem is a romantic work through and through, which is manifested by its diversity of form and extremity of contrast – from prayerful concentration to vehement sounds and dramatic expression. At the same time, the critics have pointed to its theatricality, consisting in strive for a “quasi-scenic display of its intensified musicality” (B. Pociej).

Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto is one of the greatest operas in the history of 19th century music. The composer is believed to have said after the premiere that he would never write anything better. The director Henryk Baranowski was awarded the 2000 Golden Mask (Złota Maska) for his production, which he prepared to celebrate the Krakow Opera’s 50th anniversary. Rigoletto never ceases to delight the Krakow audience: the show is always played to a full house and the artists are rewarded with thunderous applause. The critics praise Gilda (in Edyta Piasecka’s excellent interpretation), who “is not a conventional, sweet, innocent thing, but a mysterious, fascinating figure in white, who meekly submits to her father’s and the Duke’s will. This character (...) is interestingly and consistently developed (...) Traditionally interpreted as the epitomic victim of intrigue and male lust, Baranowski’s Gilda is affected by “toxic love,” by “her father’s bad touch,” and creates situations built of her desires and fears in relation to men.”

The translation of Die Fledermaus by the poet Julian Tuwim inspired the show’s director and choreographer, Janusz Józefowicz, to create a light-hearted, humorous yet spectacular performance. His rendition of the operetta is redolent with the atmosphere of the epoch: it is rich, meticulous and realistic. The costumes, made of silk, lace and velvet and decorated with ostrich plumes, take the audience a hundred years back. The orchestra plays lightly, in keeping with the atmosphere of the show. This Johann Strauss doesn’t sound his age.

'The book of  forest' is a fairy tale presented in the form of musical theatre and focused on the theme of a quest for ecological values that provide human life with harmony and sense.

A dried out, primeval forest is filled with deadly silence. A Woodcutter comes to cut a 1000-year -old oak tree growing there. Before he starts his work he discovers that the reason for the lack of life in the forest is the illness of Echo who had to reverberate the screams of people who had no respect for the silence of the forest for such a long time that its throat became hoarse and finally lost its voice. This is when the animals and the birds took their leave. The Woodcutter decides to rescue the forest and goes in search of a cure for the stricken Echo. During his numerous adventures, in which he encounters the remaining inhabitants of the forest, he finds three enchanted flowers and learns the magic words contained therein, which, as we discover, are the keys to a happy life. When, in the final scene, he exclaims the magic words together with the audience so loudly that they can be heard by all the children in the world, Echo regains its voice and the forest comes back to life.

The production is addressed not only to children but also to their parents and teachers, giving them a very good reason to talk about what is really important in life, and worthy of respect and care.

The Devils of Loudun, Krzysztof Penderecki’s first work, was selected for the opening of the Krakow Opera’s new house. As Laco Adamik, the director, says, the work is based on an old-time story, but is not to be understood as a historical image or a reference to the past epoch, for it conveys a very modern message. The overlapping of two plains, the modern and the historical ones, is adequately conveyed by the costumes designed by Magdalena Tesławska. Andrzej Straszyński, the music director, has succeeded in highlighting the enormous expressivity of the work, especially when it comes to the orchestra and the chorus, creating thus a true musical drama. The chapter of the Jan Kiepura Music Award named the Krakow Opera’s production of The Devils of Loudun the best performance of 2008.

A jewel of the Italian opera buffa, as becomes a work of comedy it is all about love complications, this time in a rustic, bucolic setting. The characters’ amorous adventures come to a happy end not so much through their belief in the magic powers of the mysterious elixir as through their steadfast conviction that the world we live in is subject to an eternal order, which also comprises tolerance for the weaknesses and errors of human nature. Praised for the subtlety of the scenario and the psychological credibility of the characters, the work is also endowed with something elusive, evoking melancholy and yearning. Following this path, what the directors of the present stage production propose is a crazy sentimental journey to a bygone yet not-so-distant time, still remembered and reminisced upon, to convince us that goodness and love are invariably fascinating in every era and clime... This is the first staging of The Elixir of Love in the history of the Krakow Opera.

The performance comprises two one-act pieces, combined to make up a whole.
The Krakow production of Ullman’s The Emperor of Atlantis perfectly renders its tragicomic character. This allegorical farce, which draws on real-life experiences of a wartime exile and a concentration camp inmate, is presented in the convention of a folk theatre. The characters, devoid of historical attributes, resemble walking puppets, which act in grotesque and exaggerated ways. The only object on the stage is a roundabout-like structure with hangers – coats placed on the hangers produce associations with hanged men, which contributes to the atmosphere of ghostly carnival.
Kolot min HaShoah, by contemporary American composer David Eddleman, is an oratorio dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust. This piece of sorrowful music incorporates biblical texts, songs and prayers in Yiddish and Hebrew. Contemplative in character, the discreet staging of Eddleman’s work evokes memories of millions of murdered children of Israel.

This new ballet production is directed at those who love dance, beautiful music and emotions aroused by sound, light and stage movement. The ballet premiere is a major event for the Krakow Opera and the entire city, as shown by the great interest on the part of the audience. The performance is composed of three parts, each constituting an independent whole. What connects the three is the theme of love and desire, which may influence the human life in profound, often unexpected, ways. The show is based on French music by Charles Gounod (Part I – Walpurgis Night from Faust) and Maurice Ravel (Part II – Boléro) and Spanish folk music (Part III – Spanish Miniatures). Each part has been individually choreographed by Nina Diatchenko, a dance master from Minsk. The performance uses various dance genres – from classical dance, through modern dance to the elements of character dance, which is of immense artistic value, since character dance is now largely forgotten.

Great splendour is a joke

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 Governess Mirabella. Zsupan invites all guests to his home. During the meeting, it is evealed that Mirabella is the wife of Commissioner Carnero who was lost during the Turkish war long before, and Ottokar was their son. At that time Arsena receives the new suitor with reservation, promising her hand when he earns the title of baron. Sandor is not discouraged, and, leaving for the capital, he visits a Gypsy camp on his land. There, he listens to a song by a young Gypsy Saffi...

Moniuszko’s opera was premiered in Warsaw in September 1865. The present theatre version of The Haunted Manor combines elements typical of both outdoor and indoor performances (several years ago the opera was spectacularly staged at the Royal Castle in Niepołomice near Krakow). According to its director, Laco Adamik, the new production of The Haunted Manor aims at revealing Polish national vices and showing 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 framework. Thanks to its well-woven, lively plot, which is fuelled by vows of bachelorhood, constantly surprises the audience with changes of mood and delights them with humour, wit and lyricism, The Haunted Manor remains one of the Polish music lovers’ all-time favourites. It comes as no surprise, given that, musically speaking, Moniuszko’s work is perfectly crafted: melodically and harmonically inventive and scored with immense virtuosity.

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 sensuous. It mirrored the tensions of action, reflected the atmosphere and was full of humour. The libretto and the music make a unique whole. The Marriage of Figaro is an exciting comedy, full of unexpected turns of events. It is a story of erotic intrigue in which characters are perfectly portrayed. What is more, it was the first opera which included a critique of social relations.

The creators of our performance have remained faithful to the Mozart’s masterpiece. They accentuate its timeless merits, including in particular the truthfulness of characters, emotions and relations between the characters. At the same time, they do not avoid social issues addressed in the story of marriage between Figaro and Susanna. The all-star cast of the premiere performance features Mariusz Kwiecień, the soloist of the Metropolitan Opera, as Count Almaviva.

Based on a Russian fairy tale, The Soldier’s Tale is a kind of morality play in the form of a suite for seven instruments. The extensive violin part symbolises the soldier’s soul. This piece, written for small ensemble, has had many stage versions – ours is a ballet production. The work is remarkable for its formal features: it combines music, dance and the theatre. It is also noteworthy for the fact that Stravinsky was the first to incorporate jazz elements into a work of classical music. A crucial part is played by the narrator – Krzysztof Globisz’s (recorded) performance and is the true highlight of the show. The ballet has been choreographed, designed and produced by the young Russian artist Elena Boganovich, who works with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

The piece tells the story of two brothers, separated due to fate, who, due to love for one woman and also political torments, rise against each other, unaware of their kinship… “Troubadour’s” libretto, despite based on authentic events from Middle Age Spain torn with civil wars, is regarded to be complicated and unclear, mainly because the key events for the plot take place out of stage – they exist only in relations of other characters. The opera’s success was attributed primarily to music – it is “a music and vocal pleasure”, they wrote. Laco Adamik – in defiance of these opinions – tries, relying on his many year’s narrative experience of a director, to make the performance shine also from the plot’s side. His staging offers fleshy characters, well-shaped events and a crime which once committed entails next ones, like in the ancient tragedy. You will be anxious and moved. It is the first staging of the title in the entire history of the Krakow stage.

Co-financed with the funds of the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage

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 of rendering the opera too banal or too predictable, but the Krakow Opera’s staging of Tosca has a lot to recommend itself. Apart from an absolute vocal mastery, the lead singers show excellent acting skills – their characters are deeply moving and believable. The dramatic story of Tosca and Cavaradossi’s love as seen at the Krakow Opera House moves the audience to tears.

In 1827, Franz Schubert composed a series of twenty four songs entitled Winterreise (Winter Journey) to lyrical poems by the Romantic poet Wilhelm Müller. In 1994, Stanisław Barańczak completed his own Winter Journey, a collection of poems which are not translations of Müller’s works (with one exception) but original pieces, fitting perfectly the musical structure of Schubert’s masterpiece. Both these series are similar in spirit. As Barańczak points out, he owes the German poet “a lot of situational, thematic, and even phonetic inspirations.” The dissimilarities are the consequence of existing in two different worlds. Rejected in love, Müller’s romantic hero plunges into a wintery night of solitude and despair. Barańczak’s wanderer traverses the ice-cold desert of modern civilization with a heavy load of feelings and reflections provoked by it. It was this latter version, created by the Polish poet as a text set to Schubert’s music, that the directors of the production chose to work on, proposing an existentialist musical drama, full of diverse tensions, references, and meanings.