Krakow Opera (Krakow, Poland)
Krakow Opera
The long list of names of renowned artists associated with the Opera Krakowska, includes conductors such as Kazimierz Kord, Robert Satanowski, Jan Latham-Koenig, Roland Bader and Aurelio Canonici; set designers such as Tadeusz Kantor, Lidia Zamkow, Józef Szajna, Krystyna Zachwatowicz; and a plethora of opera singers, many of whom began their careers there, including Teresa Żylis-Gara and Wiesław Ochman.
The Opera Krakowska, active today, was founded in 1954 in postwar Kraków, Poland, although the tradition of opera in the city dates back to 1628 when the first ever full libretto in Polish was released by the local publishing house, followed by the first fully-fledged opera performance in the city in March 1782. The Kraków Opera company stages 200 performances each year, including ballet, operettas and musicals for the young, with an audience occupancy rate of 98%. The Kraków Opera's main repertoire includes both international and Polish operatic classics, reaffirming its status as one of the country's leading opera companies.
For dozens of years, the Kraków Opera, now located at Lubicz 48 Street, lacked its own premises and instead used a number of concert venues in the city. The only permanent stage where the opera performances were staged for decades was the landmark Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków Old Town. The construction of the new opera house which can seat 760 people started in 2004. The new house opened in the autumn of 2008.