The Wrocław Opera (

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

: ''Opera Wrocławska'') is an opera company and

opera house An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically for o ...

in the

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

, Poland. The opera house was opened in 1841 and up to 1945 was named after the city's then German name, Oper Breslau.

History

An Italian opera company was established in Breslau in 1725 by Antonio Maria Peruzzi, following a split with Antonio Denzio with whom he had collaborated in the Peruzzi-Denzio company at the Sporck theatre in Prague. The Theater on the Cold Ashes was opened in 1755 by Franz von Schuch (1716–1764) and performed operas till his death in 1764. His son, Schuch the younger, brought the first operas of

Johann Adam Hiller Johann Adam Hiller (25 December 1728, in Wendisch-Ossig, Saxony – 16 June 1804, in Leipzig) was a German composer, conductor and writer on music, regarded as the creator of the Singspiel, an early form of German opera. In many of these operas ...

to the Theodor Lobe's theatre in Breslau in 1770. His successor Johann Christian Wäser introduced more, including local Singspiel translations of works by

Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny ( – ) was a French composer and a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts (1813). He is considered alongside André Grétry and François-André Danican Philidor to have been the founder of a new musical genre ...

. In 1804 Abbé Vogler invited

Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his opera ...

to conduct the Breslau Opera when he was only 18. The opera house was constructed in 1841 to designs by

Carl Gotthard Langhans Carl Gotthard Langhans (15 December 1732 – 1 October 1808) was a Prussian master builder and royal architect. His churches, palaces, grand houses, interiors, city gates and theatres in Silesia (now Poland), Berlin, Potsdam and elsewhere bel ...

, supervised by his son Carl Ferdinand. It was remodeled twice after fires in 1865 by and 1871 by Karl Schmidt. After the first fire, Theodor Lobe in 1867 invited the young conductor Ernst Schuch (1846–1914) to begin his career at the theatre. After World War I notable productions during the interwar years included Schönberg's ''

Die glückliche Hand ' (''The Hand of Fate''), Op. 18, is a ''Drama mit Musik'' ("drama with music") by Arnold Schoenberg in four scenes. It was composed between 1910 and 1913. Like ''Erwartung'', composed a year earlier, it was heavily influenced by Otto Weininger's ...

'' (1928). The music directors in this period included Franz von Hoesslin who was forced to leave the city, and Germany, in 1928.

Polish period

Following the inclusion of Breslau into Poland in 1945, the Lower Silesian Opera made its inaugural performance in Polish Wrocław on September 8, 1945, with

Stanisław Moniuszko Stanisław Moniuszko (; May 5, 1819 – June 4, 1872) was a Polish composer, conductor and teacher. He wrote many popular art songs and operas, and his music is filled with patriotic folk themes of the peoples of the former Polish–Lithuania ...

's ''

Halka ''Halka'' is an opera by Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko to a libretto written by Włodzimierz Wolski, a young Warsaw poet with radical social views. It is part of the canon of Polish national operas. Performance history The first perf ...

'' directed by Stanislaw Drabik. From 1945 to 1950 the building housed not only the Opera, but also theater, puppet theater and operetta performances. In 1997 the current Director Ewa Michnik, undertook the idea to use other venues during the complete rehab of the building (1997–2006). She created a series of mega-productions that took place around the city including the Centennial Hall, The National Museum courtyard and banks of the Oder River. This tradition became a trademark of Wrocław Opera and continues to this day. The super productions are famous for interesting surroundings, attractive decorations and guest actors. The Opera also organized

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

festivals building on the tradition of Wagner's involvement with Wrocław Opera. The current repertoire of the Opera House includes ''Kot w butach'' (Puss in Boots) by Bogdan Pawłowski and ''Matka czarnoskrzydłych snów'' by

Hanna Kulenty Hanna Kulenty (born March 18, 1961, in Białystok) is a Polish composer of contemporary classical music. Since 1992, she has worked and lived both in Warsaw (Poland) and in Arnhem (Netherlands). Musical education After studying piano at the Karo ...

. In 2014, the opera house received 105,451 visitors. In 2017,

Leszek Możdżer Leszek Możdżer (Polish pronunciation: born Lesław Henryk Możdżer, 23 March 1971, Gdańsk) is a Polish jazz pianist, music producer and film score composer. Life and career Możdżer was born on 23 March 1971 in Gdańsk. He began to play t ...

's opera ''Immanuel Kant'' based on the works of

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civilizati ...

premiered at the Wrocław Opera.

Present-day administration

In September 2020, Halina Ołdakowska was appointed the director of the Wrocław Opera.

Mariusz Kwiecień Mariusz Kwiecień (, born 4 November 1972) is a Polish artistic director and retired operatic baritone who sang leading roles in the major opera houses of Europe and North America. He received particular distinction in the title role of Mozar ...

currently serves as the artistic director of the opera house while Bassem Akiki is the opera's music director.

Premieres

Ludomir Różycki Ludomir Różycki (; 18 September 1883 Warsaw – 1 January 1953 Katowice) was a Polish composer and conductor. He was, with Mieczysław Karłowicz, Karol Szymanowski and Grzegorz Fitelberg, a member of the group of composers known as ''Y ...

''Eros und Psyche'', 1914 *

''Immanuel Kant'', 2017

References

External links