''Teatr Wielki w Łodzi'' (The Grand Theater in Łódź) is an
opera house
An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...
in
Łódź
Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...
, Poland. It is the largest theatre in the city, specialising in
opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
,
operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...
and
ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
.
History
It was opened on 19 January 1967 and by the end of 2005 it had staged 240 premieres. The theatre is one of the most important operatic venues in Poland. Its director is Dariusz Stachura.
The Teatr Wielki, located on Plac Dąbrowskiego, is the second largest opera house in Poland and one of the largest in Europe, with an auditorium which can seat 1074 people.
The house has staged works by composers of the past (including
Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...
,
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
,
Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, recei ...
and
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
) as well as contemporary figures (such as
Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best-known works include '' Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', '' Polish Requiem'', '' ...
and Bogdan Pawłowski). Its productions have travelled abroad throughout Europe and the United States. Artists including
Victoria de los Ángeles
Victoria de los Ángeles López García (1 November 192315 January 2005) was a Spanish operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career began after the Second World War and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s.
...
,
Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor. He rose to fame in 1994 after winning the newcomers' section of the 44th Sanremo Music Festival performing " Il mare calmo della sera".
Since 1994, Bocelli has recorded 15 solo st ...
,
Angela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu (; ; born 7 September 1965) is a Romanian soprano, especially known for her performances in the operas of Puccini and Verdi, widely recognised by critics and opera lovers as one of the greatest sopranos of all time.
Embarking ...
,
José Cura
José Luis Victor Cura Gómez (born 5 December 1962) is an Argentine operatic tenor, conductor, director, scenographer and photographer known for intense and original interpretations of opera characters, notably ''Otello'' in Verdi’s ''Otello ...
and
Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...
have appeared on its stage. Directors who have worked there include
Adam Hanuszkiewicz and Ryszard Peryt. The building also hosts other events, such as New Year Balls and fashion shows. The most famous of these is the international film festival of the art of cinematography,
Camerimage
The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography Camerimage () is a festival that celebrates and awards cinematography and cinematographers. The festival is held in Toruń, Poland, at the end of November every year. It spans the cou ...
.
See also
*
Polish opera
Polish opera may be broadly understood to include operas staged in Poland and works written for foreign stages by Polish composers, as well as opera in the Polish language.
The tradition reaches back to Italian language entertainments of the baro ...
*
Theatre in Poland
In common with other European countries, the most frequent and most popular form of theatre in Poland is Drama, dramatic theatre, based on the existence of stable Stagecraft, artistic companies. It is above all a theatre of Theatre director, dir ...
References
External links
Official site of the Grand Theater in Łódź
Wielki, Lodz
Theatres in Łódź
Music venues completed in 1967
1967 establishments in Poland
Theatres completed in 1967
Culture in Łódź
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