Name: 30th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival
Start: 2026-03-22T18:00:00
Location: Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

Polish National Opera

A series of workshops for visually impaired people and their companions, focusing on conversations about the theatre of the past and its history. Workshops are prepared by Theatre Museum staff, drawing on the sculpture collection. During these workshops, we not only share knowledge but also provide direct access to many valuable artifacts from our collections. This allows visitors to "touch" the history of Polish theatre and the personal stories of extraordinary individuals.

Touch the theater

Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

Meet young Stanisław Moniuszko – just like you, this cheerful boy loves nature, music, and playing outdoors. Staś comes to us from ancient times, and during the meeting, he will talk about the music and songs he invents with his winged friends. We will hear how Moniuszko's music sounds with percussion instruments and try our hand at singing together. It will be loud and fun!

Sing with Moniuszko

What's it like to work on the main stage before the curtain rises? The Open Rehearsal program is a unique opportunity for organized groups from primary and secondary schools to watch a fragment of a musical rehearsal. Artists reveal a glimpse of the performance, inviting students into their creative world.

Open trial

What is opera? How and when did it originate? Why might it be of interest to everyone? During this meeting, we will explore the secrets of one of the most fascinating musical forms: opera. It is a unique combination of words, music, visual art, movement, gesture, and acting. The opera lesson will also provide an opportunity to listen to a short live concert performed by opera soloists and talk with real artists!

Belcanto, or knowledge about opera

Sunday concerts for families with children, encouraging entire families to experience music together. In the friendly atmosphere and space of the Redutowe Rooms, children can take their first steps as little music lovers and discover the most beautiful works of musical literature.

Big for the little ones

An interactive way to introduce children to the magical atmosphere of the world of opera. Through games and activities, participants can learn about the various musical instruments that make up a symphony orchestra and recognize different types of human voices.

Seekers of operatic sounds

Joint activities for children and adults that develop their musical, dance, and artistic imaginations. These sessions help discover children's dormant talents and build intergenerational bonds. These musical activities, exploring the world of sound and movement, are led by charismatic guides – instrumentalists and ballet masters.

Family fun in Wielki

Theatre artists have a real problem with Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt . This dramatic poem, with its episodic structure and use of fantastical elements, posed a challenge for the stage designers, but it turns out to be ideal material for a ballet performance. In 2015, the choreography for Peer Gynt was created by the Slovenian dancer of Romanian origin, Edward Clug. The premiere in Maribor was a huge success, and the ballet later traveled to Zurich, Vienna, Dortmund, Hanover, and Leipzig. What accounts for the production's popularity? Above all, it doesn't shy away from the original's fragmented narrative, leaving the significance of the protagonist's individual adventures unsaid, and above all, it employs a remarkably contemporary visual language, avoiding treating Ibsen's drama as a dusty old fairy tale inspired by folklore.

Peer Gynt

An opera about Auschwitz seemed unimaginable. And yet, it did. It was composed by Mieczysław Weinberg, a Polish-Jewish Varsovian who lost his family in the camp and of whom the opera's director, David Pountney, said that he "spent his life creating music in memory of his lost loved ones." Weinberg was inspired by the novel The Passenger (1962) by Zofia Posmysz. The author survived the camp. The decision to bear witness to the cruelty of the Holocaust was obvious to her. The Passenger describes a voyage on a luxury ocean liner, during which the Polish woman Marta recognizes the elegant woman, Lisa, an SS overseer from Auschwitz (the German woman's real name is Annelise Franz). Weinberg's music, in keeping with the action, is diverse, realistic, and symbolic at once; different when it accompanies conversations in the sun on the ship's deck, with the orchestra playing for the passengers to dance to, and different when the hell of Auschwitz unfolds below deck. The prisoners are of different nationalities, so their solo singing, as well as the seven-voice Song of Life and Death , is multilingual. The prisoners ' Requiem for the Black Wall echoes with the bell, Bach's Chaconne , and the camp orchestra. Weinberg's The Passenger, completed in 1968 in the Soviet Union, could not be performed there because its content was too reminiscent of Soviet labor camps. Only in 2006, after the composer's death, was it performed in Moscow in concert. Did staging an opera about Auschwitz seem impossible? And yet, it was. David Pountney produced it in 2010. First, there was the Bregenz Festival and Warsaw. Then London, Houston, New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Florida. And everywhere, every time: a stage bisected by light and sound. A cheerful, prosperous Europe. And the hell of the Holocaust. Its memory endures. The world cannot forget.

Passenger

Simon Boccanegra was written in the 1850s, a period when Giuseppe Verdi, inspired by his growing fame, was challenging operatic tradition. It is a dark work, dominated by low voices, with a baritone as the protagonist, and no supporting female roles. The world premiere in 1857 was not well-received; towards the end of his life, Arrigo Boito and the composer made far-reaching changes to the work, and only this 1881 version achieved success on opera stages.

Simon Boccanegra

30th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival

A beautiful Indian fairy tale about love whose power transcends death. Legendary ballet star Natalia Makarova staged La Bayadère at the Bolshoi Theatre , following the finest examples from St. Petersburg. She meticulously recreated and refined the original choreographic version by the great Marius Petipa from 1877, while preserving his unparalleled choreography of the Kingdom of the Shades scene – one of the phenomenal aspects of classical ballet. She created her La Bayadère first for the American Ballet Theatre in New York and then performed it several times with the finest classical dance companies. This colorful, romantic spectacle captivates with its grandeur, is deeply moving, and leaves a lasting impression. It is full of soloistic displays and magnificent ensemble scenes. It is a perfect test of the academic artistry of any ballet company, including the Polish National Ballet and its leading soloists.