Opera Krakowska, Kraków

Opera Krakowska is Kraków’s opera house, and its main entrance incorporates something unexpected: an early-twentieth-century horse-riding hall, recognisable by its semicircular roof. That historic structure has been absorbed into the newer theatre building; inside it are the entrance, ticket foyer and cloakrooms, while the upper floor serves exhibitions, talks and the foyer. The present house was built between 2004 and 2008 and opened ceremonially on the thirteenth of December 2008.

Its main auditorium seats 764, with a separate smaller stage for 180 people. At the main entrance, the bronze sculpture is Igor Mitoraj’s Birth of Eros, unveiled here in 2009. The company itself began in postwar Kraków in 1954, and its first production was Verdi’s Rigoletto on the thirteenth of October that year.

Yet Kraków’s operatic story reaches much further back: a local printer issued Poland’s first opera libretto in 1628, and the city’s first public opera performance followed in March 1782. Today the company presents roughly 200 performances annually, spanning opera, ballet, operetta and musicals for younger audiences.