Dear Audience Members,
despite your long absence from our house forced by the pandemic, we have been busy getting ready for the day when we will finally be able to open our doors wide again and lead you all the way to the auditorium. After more than four months of preparations, we are now all set to to welcome you back.
We have introduced some changes to our programme but are sure it will satisfy the lovers and opera and ballet alike.
Later this month, we will present Krzysztof Pastor's balletic take on the most famous melodrama ever written, Romeo and Juliet, set to music by Sergei Prokofiev If you miss it this time, the ballet returns on our stage in June.
Those who have not had a chance to experience Aleksandra Kurzak's marvelous vocal talent live will be able to hear the artist sing Cio-cio-san in Mariusz Treliński's production of Giacomo Puccini's excellent Japanese tragedy Madama Butterfly at the beginning of March. Performing alongside the celebrated soprano will be tenor Rafał Bartmiński, well known to the Warsaw audience.
Next up, we will present the farewell run of The Lady of the Camellias. The tragic story of a Parisian courtesan set to music by Fryderyk Chopin was choreographed by the brilliant John Neumeier.
And we have more big name performances in store for you. World-class tenor Piotr Beczała will give his concert on 17 March (rescheduled from 10 February).
Also in March we will welcome back the spectacular production of The Magic Flute. The staging of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's classic opera devised by Barrie Kosky, the director of the Komische Oper Berlin, and Suzanne Andrade never ceases to amaze with its animations and Queen of the Night's showpiece aria.
On 28 March we will celebrate the life and work of eminent Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki with In Memoriam. It has already been a year since Maestro Penderecki passed away.
We sincerely hope that in April our doors will remain open and we will be able to invite you to the long awaited premiere of Paul Hindemith's Cardillac, one of the most interesting operas of the 20th century, a thriller based on Mademoiselle de Scudéri by the master of Gothic horror, E.T.A. Hoffmann. The production will surely surprise with its esthetics – a fusion of film noir and cyberpunk – conceived by director Mariusz Treliński and set designer Boris Kudlička. A co-production of the Polish National Opera, Oper Köln and Teatro Real in Madrid, the unprecedented staging will be given its debut in Warsaw on 23 April. Grupa Tubądzin is a partner of the event.
No other aria has been welcomed with a longer applause at the Teatr Wielki in the last ten years. In April you will have yet another chance to hear Pourquoi me réveiller masterfully sang by Piotr Beczała as he reprises the eponymous role in Massenet's Werther. The production will be shown from 9 to 11 April.
Agnieszka Glińska's popular production of Moniuszko's Halka (Vilnius version) returns to our Small Stage, albeit on different dates as originally planned. The March performances have been cancelled, while in April the opera will be shown on the 18th (instead of the 21st) and on the 26th (instead of the 6th).
Those who cherish classical productions will be glad to learn that, after the cancellation of its March performances, Aida, the exquisite operatic drama by Giuseppe Verdi featuring the famed two-octave aria and glamorous set design will be performed in May.
On 19 May we will also invite our audience to the premiere and subsequent performances of Mayerling choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan to music by Franz Liszt under Patrick Fournillier.
Also in May we will show you a staging of Carl Orff's cantata Carmina Burana (Blink of An Eye). The event is part of the second edition of 'BMW Art Club. Future is Art'.
We will end the season with the opening of Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, the premiere of which is planned for 23 June.
We hope the programme meets your expectations.
Tickets for March performances go on sale on 15 February at 11 a.m. At first, we will cap auditorium seats at 25%. If the now loosened Covid-19 restrictions are not tightened after the trial period ending on 28 February, more seats will become available. Tickets for performances in April–June 2021 will go on sale a month in advance.
We look forward to welcoming you back to the opera house and hope you enjoy our offerings.
Stay safe and healthy.
See you soon!
