They came from all over the country and abroad - in busloads, carloads, on trams and on foot. Some forty thousand of them or so braved unsettled chilly June evenings, mosquitoes to boot, and packed into uncomfortable plastic seats that – some say – are fit only to be torn out and used by stadium hooligans. Such crowds walking to the speedway Olympic Stadium in Wrocław could have been more typical for a major rock concert that might have been held there, with the atmosphere enhanced by the smells of grilling meats and draught beer. Instead, all these people were going to the opera!   

Wrocław Opera was the first in Poland to mount ‘superproductions’ in the open as well as in unlikely places such as barges moored in a river. 

This thirteenth season was also a challenge with a flamboyant  production of Puccini’s Turandot at the Olympic Stadium.

Elżbieta Krajewska spoke to Director of Wrocław Opera Ewa Michnik, director of the production Michał Znaniecki, conductors Tomasz Szreder and Bassem Akiki, technical director Janusz Słoniowski and bass-baritone Wojciech Smilek, who came back to the Polish stage after 20 years in France.