Address | 1 Theatre Square Warsaw Poland |
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Capacity | over 2000 seats |
Construction | |
Opened | February 24, 1833 |
Demolished | September 1939 |
Rebuilt | 1965 (entirely) |
Years active | 1833-present |
Architect | Antonio Corazzi, Chrystian Piotr Aigner, Bohdan Marconi |
The Grand Theatre (or Great Theatre) in Warsaw (Polish: Teatr Wielki w Warszawie), the Grand (or Great) Theatre—National Opera (Polish: Teatr Wielki—Opera Narodowa) is a theatre complex and opera company located on historic Theatre Square in Warsaw, Poland. The Grand Theatre in Warsaw is one of the largest theatres in Europe.
The Theatre was inaugurated on 24 February 1833 with a production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville. After the building's bombing and near-complete destruction in World War II, it was rebuilt and reopened on 19 November 1965 after having been closed for over twenty years.
The Theatre was built on Theatre Square between 1825 and 1833, replacing the former building of Marywil, from Polish classicist designs by the Italian architect Antonio Corazzi of Livorno, to provide a new performance venue for existing opera, ballet and drama companies active in Warsaw. The building was remodeled several times and, in the period of Poland's political eclipse from 1795 to 1918, it performed an important cultural and political role in producing many works by Polish composers and choreographers.
It was in the new theatre that Stanisław Moniuszko's two best-known operas received their premieres: the complete version of Halka (1858), and The Haunted Manor (1865). After Frédéric Chopin, Moniuszko was the greatest figure in 19th-century Polish music, for in addition to producing his own works, he was director of the Warsaw Opera from 1858 until his death in 1872.