23th Kraków Opera Summer Festival

Friday, June 7, 2019 - Saturday, June 29, 2019

  • Friday, June 7, 2019 - Saturday, June 29, 2019
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Premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, Barber of Seville comeback and three great operas - that's a brief look upon Kraków Opera Summer Festival, which will take place for a 23rd time this year. The festival has been attracting a massive audience and the stars of opera scene. Although none of us can control the weather, Kraków Opera will do everything to ensure that the temperature of artistic experience will remain high.

Candide
Candide (1956-88) is - along West Side Story (1957) - one of the most popular musical works written by Leonard Bernstein. This operetta will be directed by Michał Znaniecki and thus far it's his sixth production (after Don Giovanni, Eugene OneginThe Love for Three Oranges, King Roger and The Tales of Hoffmann) for Kraków Opera. Musical premiere will be prepared by Sławomir Chrzanowski, an experienced conductor with performances at New York's Carnegie Hall and a cooperation with Chicago Philharmonic under his belt. The cast includes: Monika Korybalska, Katarzyna Oleś-Blacha, Małgorzata Walewska, Mariusz Godlewski, Adam Szerszeń and the youngest generation of Kraków scene's soloists - Paula Maciołek and Jarosław Bielecki. Premiere at 7th of June will be also an inauguration of entire festival. Following performances will take place on 8th, 9th, 11th, 14th, 15th and 16th of June.

Dialogue of Masters: Mahler and Strauss
Two gianst of late Romanticism - composers from the turn of the century and two boughs from an impressive tree that grew out of Wagnerian trunk. Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss will meet again when Dialogue of Masters will be performed at the Polish Aviation Museum on 19th of June. Kraków Opera had been working with museum on numerous occasions, including popular series of concerts Songs - Theatre of Words or Great Choirs of Great Operas.
Dialogue of Masters will lead listeners through almost a hundred years of history. Starting with Mahler's and Strauss' common affection for Wagner, until of the the very last of Strauss' works. Last Four Songs were created after World War II - in 1948. Written for a "high voice" and orchestra, they used to be performed by stars like Montserrat Caballé, Renée Fleming or Teresa Żylis-Gara. On 19th of June Katarzyna Oleś-Blacha will join their ranks.
In the middle part we will get a chance to listen to two Mahler's masterpieces. Kindertotenlieder is a shattering series of "songs for dead children", written to the poems by Friedrich Rückert's. In reference to "romantic" ending,  
Adagietto from 5th Symphony will be performed. This piece is in fact a love letter from a composer to Alma Schindler. Shortly before the 5th Symphony premiere, Gustav Mahler had married Alma.

Arias of World Operas according to Moniuszko
Arias of World Operas concerts are the festival's mainstay. This year they will be dedicated to Stanisław Moniuszko in accordance to Moniuszko Year celebration and will be performed in a place pulsating with our homeland's pulse - Arcade Courtyard at Wawel Royal Castle. The previous editions had featured such ilustrious artists as Piotr Beczała, Aleksandra Kurzak or Edyta Kulczak.
Two nights at Wawel, on 23rd and 24th of June will turn into a grand Moniuszko opera gala. Alongside well known works like The Haunted Manor or Halka, there will be enough room for fragments of less known operas Verbum Nobile, The Countess and Betty. The performers will include brilliant soloists - Katarzyna Oleś-Blacha, Monika Korybalska, Ewa Vesin, Tomasz Kuk, Adam Szerszeń and Wojciech Gierlach. They will be accompanied by Kraków Opera's choir, orchestra and ballet, as directed by Tomasz Tokarczyk.

Great Choirs of Great Operas
Only the choirs of genuine artistry can succesfully perform monumental, blood-chilling opera's masterpieces. Kraków's audience will get a chance of listening to those during the fifh edition of Great Choirs of Great Operas. The concert on 26th of June at Wawel Arcade Courtyard will consist of Jacques Offenbach, Giacomo Puccini, Ruggero Leoncevallo or Georges Bizet, as performed by Kraków Opera Choir and orchestra conducted by Tomasz Tokarczyk.
The Great Choirs of Great Operas concerts had previously taken place in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, attracting numerous music afficionados. They also gained raved reviews - "The concert's undoubted virtue (perhaps the biggest one) is the standard of each presentations. (...)" - wrote Anna Woźniakowska for Dziennik Polski - "The variety of articulation and richness of dynamic nuances in choir's singing was impressive".

Barber of Seville comeback
"Premiere of the Gioacchino Rossini's most famous opera was met with enthusiastic reception. And one has to admit, it's fully deserved. The performance directed by Jerzy Stuhr has a fast pace and good dynamics of collective scenes, that make it entertaining from the firt moment upon the very last one". On 28th and 29th of June Barber of Seville will make it's comeback. In the sun of Seville, the irresistible melodies of Rossini's arias and ensembles, Kraków Opera Summer Festival will reach a hot culminating point. 

7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16 JUNE 2019
KRAKÓW OPERA 6:30pm » L. Bernstein Candide, M. Znaniecki (director), S. Chrzanowski (musical direction), premiere; PLN 28-120 (premiere: PLN 40-140)

15 JUNE 2019
PAULINE CHURCH 8pm » Songs - Theatre of Words, Lend Us Your Ear, Lord: Songs by Stanisław Moniuszko, Katarzyna Oleś-Blacha (soprano), Daria Proszek, Monika Korybalska (mezzosoprano), Robert Gierlach (baritone), Jacek Ozimkowski (bass), Arkadiusz Bialic (organs), Olga Tsymbaluk (piano)

19 JUNE 2019
POLISH AVIATION MUSEUM 7:30pm » Dialogue of Masters: Mahler and Strauss, Katarzyna Oleś-Blacha (soprano), Adam Szerszeń (baritone), Kraków Opera Orchestra, Tomasz Tokarczyk (conductor); PLN 40

23, 24 JUNE 2019
WAWEL ROYAL CASTLE ARCADE COURTYARD 8:30pm » Arias of World Operas – Moniuszko!, Katarzyna Oleś-Blacha, Ewa Vesin (soprano), Monika Korybalska (mezzosoprano), Tomasz Kuk (tenor), Adam Szerszeń (baritone), Wojciech Gierlach (bass), Kraków Opera Orchestra, Tomasz Tokarczyk (conductor); PLN 40-100

26 JUNE 2019
WAWEL ROYAL CASTLE ARCADE COURTYARD 8:30pm » Great Choirs of Great Operas, Kraków Opera Choir and Orchestra, Tomasz Tokarczyk (conductor); program includes: J. Offenbach, G. Puccini, R. Leoncavallo, G. Bizet; PLN 30-80

28, 29 JUNE 2019
KRAKÓW OPERA 6:30pm » G. Rossini The Barber of Seville, J. Stuhr (director), T. Tokarczyk (musical direction); PLN 28-120

12 296 62 60 (61)
For whom: for children, for seniors, for families
Other: open air event, acceptable for people with disabilities
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