Lviv National Opera
Neo-Renaissance opera house of 1900 on Svobody Avenue, still staging opera and ballet.
The Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet, named after the soprano Solomiya Krushelnytska, opened in October 1900 to a design by Zygmunt Gorgolewski, then director of the city's school of applied arts. Because the chosen site lay over the Poltva river, Gorgolewski culverted the stream and set the building on a concrete raft, a novelty at the time. The neo-Renaissance and Baroque-influenced facade carries allegorical bronzes of Glory, Tragedy and Comedy on its parapet, and the interior is finished in marble, gilding and painted ceilings.
Behind the vestibule and mirrored hall lies a horseshoe auditorium of about a thousand seats, with a painted curtain by Henryk Siemiradzki. The company mounts a repertoire of standard opera and classical ballet alongside Ukrainian works. It resumed full performances in 2022 after a pause at the start of the full-scale invasion, capping audiences at the capacity of its shelter, and it has since presented premieres of Ukrainian operas and hosted displaced artists from other Ukrainian companies.
Highlights
- Built over the culverted Poltva river on a concrete raft foundation
- Painted curtain by Henryk Siemiradzki and a gilded mirror hall
- Named after the soprano Solomiya Krushelnytska
- Audience numbers limited to the capacity of the theatre's shelter
