The Opera Rara festival – held in this format for the first time this year – has already attracted huge levels of attention and attendance. Kraków has started 2017 on a high note and the harsh winter hasn’t scared off audiences wishing to take a fresh look at Europe’s operatic tradition. The electrifying finale of the festival is coming in February with a review of its most important motifs – from a beautiful Baroque opera, via a forgotten version of Moniuszko’s “Halka”, to song recitals in unusual settings.
And since this year’s Carnival lasts until the end of February, that’s not all: the Groteska Theatre has prepared a fabulous programme for the Materia Prima festival, focusing on visually dazzling theatre forms. It’s a perfect event for all lovers of beauty, harmony and plasticity of performance. Musical harmonies and rhythms of sailing songs – the essence of the Shanties festival – take us to the Vistula (this year is dedicated to the queen of Poland’s rivers) and onwards to the open waters of seas and oceans. “I am sailing” is also bound to resound at Tauron Arena Kraków during Rod Stewart’s concert, and musical peregrinations take us all the way to the Caribbean thanks to the virtuoso performance by Arturo Sandoval.
Who says that February is boring?
- In this era of chaos, it puts the world in order and takes us on a theatrical journey to the land of dreams. Materia Prima is here again! read more
- This year’s Shanties festival takes us By the Vistula to the Oceans. Between 23 and 26 February, Kraków shows it’s not as far from the open waters as you might think! read more
- At the halfway point of the Opera Rara festival, we talk to Jan Tomasz Adamus, the event’s artistic director, about entering the top league, searching for listeners and encouraging innovation. read more
- We always dreamed of an opera festival in Kraków which would make us feel like we’re a part of the cosmopolitan world. That’s why Opera Rara 2017 is a fascinating adventure, full of possibilities, says Robert Piaskowski, the festival’s programme director. read more
- “Greetings to everyone. I will arrive soon…” – the woman (“onna” in Japanese) in Kitagawa Utamaro’s woodcut is captured at the moment when she’s writing those words. The exhibition ONNA – Beauty, Strength, Ecstasy. Japanese Woodcuts and Paintings from the Collection of the National Museum in Krakow celebrates female beauty as depicted by Japanese masters. read more
- This guy knows just how to warm up the public on a chilly winter evening. After all, he’s from Cuba, and his performances are filled with Caribbean heat. On 17 February at Kijów.Centrum, Arturo Sandoval will be the first guest of the new cycle World of Great Music organised by the Cracovia Music Agency. read more
