Opera in Wroclaw

Looking at the statistics section of the Operabase website, you find that there is more opera in Germany than in any other country, though if you count performances per head of population, then Austria and Estonia have a better score. For a medium-sized city with a programme full of operatic masterpieces, I defy anyone to come up with somewhere which beats Wroclaw in Poland. When I was there in November 2012, this was what was on offer.

3 November: King Roger – Szymanowski

4 November: Halka – Moniuszko

6 November: Contes d’Hoffmann – Offenbach

8 November: Boris Godounov – Mussorgsky

9 November: La Boheme – Puccini

10 November: Falstaff – Verdi

11 November: The Haunted Manor – Moniuszko

13 November: Sid, The Serpent Who Wanted To Sing – Fox

14 November: Otello – Verdi

16 November: The Magic Flute – Mozart

18 November: Die Frau ohne Schatten – Strauss

21 November: Parsifal – Wagner

23 November: Don Giovanni – Mozart

25 November: Barber of Seville – Rossini

27 November: Samson et Delilah – Saint-Saens

28 November: Cosi Fan Tutte – Mozart

29 November: La Boheme – Puccini

30 November: Carmen – Bizet

And the tickets are remarkably cheap. For one of the best seats at Frau ohne Schatten, I paid 80 zlotys (about $26). Don’t ask me how all of this is financed!