Warsaw Theatre | Warsaw Attractions
Teatr Wielki (Polish National Opera)
Address: Plac Teatralny 1.
Tel: +48 (22) 6920200
Click on image to see further images.
Opera was brought to Poland only twenty years after it first appeared in Florence, by Royal Prince Ladislaus IV Vasa, who in 1628 invited the first Italian opera troupe to Warsaw. As soon as he ascended the Polish throne in 1632, he had a theatre hall built in his castle, where regular opera performances were produced by an Italian company directed by Marco Scacchi.
From 1774 on, opera, theatre and ballet performances were held in the Radziwill Mansion (today the Polish "White House") in Krakowskie Przedmiescie Street. There, on 11 July 1778, the first Polish opera was produced by a company of Polish artists - Maciej Kamienski's "Poverty Made Happy" with Wojciech Boguslawski's libretto based on a comedy by Franciszek Bohomolec. This was the beginning of Polish National Opera.
In 1779-1833 performances took place in a new theatre building on Krasinski Square, later called the National Theatre. It was there that Wojciech Boguslawski, an excellent actor, singer, director, playwright and entrepreneur, known as the father of the Polish National Theatre, developed his talent, and where a troupe of His Majesty's Dancers (from 1785), headed by the ballet masters Francois Gabriel Le Doux from Paris and Daniel Curz from Venice, began its activity.
For 170 years Teatr Wielki, today called the Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera, has been Poland's grandest opera and ballet institution. Its building was erected in 1825-1833 to designs by the Italian architect Antonio Corazzi of Livorno for the companies of national opera, ballet and drama active at the time in Warsaw. The first performance in the new building, Rossini's "Il barbiere di Siviglia", took place on 24 February 1833.