The 30th anniversary edition of the Bydgoszcz Opera Festival begins

Seven performances fill the programme of the XXX Bydgoszcz Opera Festival, which is being organised by Opera Nova in late April and early May. It will be inaugurated (20 April) with "Don Pasquale" staged by the Bydgoszcz opera house. , will be crowned by "Romeo and Juliet" (4 May) performed by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. Artists from Poland, Lithuania, Monaco, France and Ukraine will present themselves in Bydgoszcz.

In keeping with long-standing tradition, the Festival will open with the premiere of Opera Nova - this time it will be the masterpiece of opera buffa "Don Pasquale" by Gaetano Donizetti, directed for us by Paweł Szkotak.

Fans of the musical - and the band Republika - will certainly be interested in the performance "Kombinat", directed by Wojciech Kościelniak and featuring immortal songs by Grzegorz Ciechowski, which will be presented by Poznań's Musical Theatre.

Opera lovers will be electrified by the announcement of Massenet's "Manon", a pearl of French opera, which will be performed on our stage by the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius (exceptionally at 6.30 pm!).

The Lviv Opera will bring to Bydgoszcz a Polish-Ukrainian staging of Giacomo Puccini's "Turandot", which celebrated the recent 120th anniversary of the local stage.

Festival audiences will also see the first staging in Poland of Leoš Janáček's eccentric comedy of errors "Mr Brouček's Expedition" - brought to the stage by one of the leading opera directors David Pountney - which will be shown here shortly after its premiere by the Grand Theatre in Poznań.

A very interesting performance promises to be Folia, choreographed by Mourad Merzouki, combining early music performed by the leading ensemble of the French baroque scene, Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu, ballet and... hip-hop danced by La Compagnie Käfig!