Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera
Poland's national opera and ballet house on Theatre Square, with one of Europe's largest stages.
The Teatr Wielki opened on Theatre Square in 1833 to a neoclassical design by the Italian architect Antonio Corazzi, its long colonnaded front modelled on the Paris Bourse. Stanisław Moniuszko, the founder of Polish national opera, conducted here from 1858. The building was gutted by German bombing in September 1939 and again during the war; only the façade survived. Reconstruction to plans by Bohdan Pniewski, with the theatre director Arnold Szyfman, lasted two decades, and the rebuilt house reopened in November 1965.
The complex now holds the Polish National Opera and the Polish National Ballet, together with the National Theatre in its northern wing. The main Moniuszko Auditorium seats around 1,800 and its stage is among the largest in Europe, with a second, smaller Młynarski Hall for chamber work. Alongside a repertory of Italian, French, German, Slavic and Polish opera and a broad ballet programme, the theatre runs concerts, an opera academy, education projects and guided tours behind the scenes.
Highlights
- Corazzi's 1833 colonnaded façade facing Theatre Square
- Moniuszko Auditorium, seating about 1,800, with a vast stage
- Home of both the Polish National Opera and Polish National Ballet
- Backstage guided tours of the reconstructed 1965 building
