Opera Leśna, Sopot

Opera Leśna is Sopot’s open-air amphitheatre, with its performance space enclosed by forest rather than walls. It opened in July nineteen oh nine on the edge of the Tri-City Landscape Park, within the Oliwa forest complex. Notice the broad sweep of the auditorium, where the trees become part of the setting.

The venue began when Sopot was under German rule. From nineteen twenty-four, an annual Wagner festival followed the example of Bayreuth, concentrating almost entirely on his operas; selected performances also went out on German radio. That success brought Sopot a Europe-wide reputation as a northern counterpart to Bayreuth.

There is a darker passage in its history. Between nineteen thirty-nine and nineteen forty-three, Nazi ideology increasingly controlled the programme, and the grounds were used for assemblies by Hitler Youth and other Nazi organisations. After the war, song festivals reshaped the opera’s public role.

The Sopot International Song Festival has been held here every year since nineteen sixty-four, except during the martial-law closure. Whitney Houston gave her sole Polish concert here in nineteen ninety-nine. The auditorium accommodates five thousand and forty-seven spectators, and the stage with its orchestra pit can take an ensemble of up to one hundred and twenty musicians.