Chorus
For many years, the ensemble of the Orchestra of Wrocław Opera has taken part in performances building the broad repertoire of this stage. The ensemble has proved highly successful in demanding works, including, undoubtedly, operas by Verdi and Wagner.
The Chorus of Wrocław Opera is an ensemble with a rich artistic history and a broad repertoire. During the period of activity of the Polish opera stage in Wrocław – since 1945 – the Chorus has been led by outstanding figures of the musical world, including Zygmunt Szczepański, Tadeusz Markowski, Jan Marynowski, Józef Klonowski, Andrzej Jurkiewicz, Radomir Szulc, Lucjan Laprus, Janusz Ambros, Grażyna Ikowska, Janusz Mencel, Ewa Grygar, Stanisław Rybarczyk, Alan Urbanek, Małgorzata Orawska and currently Anna Grabowska-Borys.
The post-war activity of the Opera, including all of the theatre’s artistic ensembles, began with the legendary Halka by Stanisław Moniuszko, staged on the initiative of Stanisław Drabik on 8 September 1945. Since then, the repertoire of the Chorus has steadily expanded and currently includes works from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Krzysztof Penderecki and Zygmunt Krauze. In its history, the ensemble has performed on foreign stages on many occasions – beginning with performances in 1954 in what was then Czechoslovakia, in Liberec; in the 1960s and 1970s in Dresden, Görlitz, Liège, Rennes, Karlsruhe, Hamburg, Sofia and Dubrovnik; in the 1980s and 1990s, the ensemble appeared in Bulgaria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Spain as well as performed many times during the festival in Xanten. In addition, there have also been performances in Cyprus, the United States and South Korea.
An important part of the Chorus’s artistic activity consisted of operatic super-productions staged in various non-obvious spaces in Wrocław. The powerful Chorus, which had to perform not only vocally but also dramatically on enormous open-air stages, constituted almost the expressive foundation of the entire spectacle. From 1997 to 2019, 25 operatic super-productions took place, most of which were staged in Centennial Hall, including Aida, Carmen, Nabucco, Carmina Burana, Il trovatore and Prince Igor. There were also less obvious spaces, such as the roof of Galeria Dominikańska or the courtyard of Topacz Castle for Fiddler on the Roof as well as the bank of the Oder on Piotr Włostowic Boulevard for La Gioconda. Performances were also given on the Pergola by the Centennial Hall, at the Olympic Stadium, the Municipal Stadium and at the Liberty Square.
In addition, the Chorus has numerous recordings of operatic works to its credit, including Tosca, Il trovatore, Halka and Chopin as well as the most recent streaming recordings, including The Tales of Hoffmann, La bohème and The Haunted Manor in concert form.
No opera theatre can function without its Chorus, which not only sings but is, in a sense, a group of actors, and sometimes also dancers, actively participating in the action of the work.
