News » 14th Krakow Opera Summer Festival

This year’s 14th Krakow Opera Summer Festival will be inaugurated by the Krakow Night of the Theatres, including a performance by the Krakow Opera’s Ballet Studio, an operetta concert by the winners of the Iwona Borowicka Competition, a singing lesson demonstration by the soloists of the Krakow Opera, a meeting with the soloists, directors and production crew of The Gypsy Baron, and other attractions. The audience will have an opportunity to take a tour of the Krakow Opera House and see places that are usually inaccessible to viewers.

As part of the Festival, J. Strauss’ operetta The Gypsy Baron  directed by Laco Adamik and conducted by Tomasz Tokarczyk, will premiere on the 19th of June. The scenography and the costumes have been prepared by Barbara Kędzierska, and the choreography by Katarzyna Aleksander-Kmieć. More performances are scheduled for: the 20th, 22nd and 23rd of June. Last time The Gypsy Baron was shown in 2008 at the hippodrome of the Royal Castle in Niepołomice, to applause from an audience of several thousands and the media.

The special guest of the Krakow Opera will be the Silesian Theatre (Slezské divadlo) from Opava in the Czech Republic, which is going to stage G. Puccini’s La Boheme here on the 25th of June. This will not be the first visit by the Czech theatre, which performed Gianni Schicchi / Suor Angelica by G. Puccini on our stage during last year’s Festival.

In addition to the Krakow Opera House, the Festival will be held in the scenery of the Arcaded Courtyard of the Royal Castle on Wawel Hill, where concerts of the world’s finest arias are scheduled for the 27th and 29th of June, to be performed by Magdalena Barylak, Agnieszka Cząstka, Joanna Woś, Mariusz Godlewski, Arnold Rutkowski, and Rafał Siwek, conducted by Tadeusz Strugała.

On the 28th of June, the International Ballet Gala will feature some of the world’s greatest ballet stars, among them Filip Barankiewicz and Sue Jin Kang of the Stuttgart National Theatre, Mikhail Martynyuk and Sayaka Takuda of the Kremlin Ballet Theatre, who are going to present the most beautiful fragments of ballet performances, and the audience will have a unique opportunity to see choreography prepared by true masters: Uwe Scholz, John Cranko, Krzysztof Pastor and Otto Bubenick.

On the 2nd and 3rd of July, W. A. Mozart’s Coronation Mass will be performed at St. Kinga’s Chapel in the Wieliczka Salt Mine – Poland’s finest and most sumptuous underground place of worship.

The Festival will close with G. Bizet’s opera Carmen, with Małgorzata Walewska and Monika Ledzion in the leading part. The July performance of Carmen on the Krakow Opera’s stage will be the first one featuring Małgorzata Walewska since the premiere in March which she proved unable to finish due to health problems.