Opera Krakowska

The Opera Krakowska (Kraków Opera), located at Lubicz 48 Street in Kraków, Poland, was founded in 1954. The company stages 200 performances each year, including ballet, operettas and musicals for the young, with an audience occupancy rate of 98%. The Kraków Opera's main repertoire includes both international and Polish operatic classics, reaffirming its status as one of the country's leading opera companies. The long list of names of renowned artists associated with it includes conductors such as Kazimierz Kord, Robert Satanowski, Jan Latham-Koenig and Aurelio Canonici; set designers such as Tadeusz Kantor, Lidia Zamkow, Józef Szajna, Krystyna Zachwatowicz; and a plethora of singers, many of whom began their careers there, including Teresa Żylis-Gara and Wiesław Ochman.

For dozens of years, the Kraków Opera lacked its own premises and instead used a number of venues in the city. The only permanent venue where opera performances were staged for decades was the landmark Słowacki Theatre in the heart of the city. The construction of the new opera house which can seat 760 people started in 2004. The new house opened in the autumn of 2008.