Awesome Thing About Living in Europe #20

Awesome Thing About Living in Europe #20: Environmental Consciousness

Environmental consciousness is everywhere in Europe...from hotel rooms where the lights automatically turn off unless you have your room key inserted into a special switch to reusable bags.  The reusable bags have been the one thing that we have definitely adopted in our time here.  I always carry one in my purse and use it for everything from picking up some advil at the drugstore to my weekly trip to the market for produce.  As you walk around Warsaw you see everyone toting their brightly colored reusable bags. 

Pretty much every store charges for plastic bags if you need/want one.  So, not only does it help the environment but it also helps your wallet!  I know that some states in the US are considering charging for bags and I think it is a great idea.  We used to have a whole drawer filled with old plastic bags and now we simply have our few reusable ones. It's an easy way for me to feel like I am doing my small part to make a difference.

Teatr Wielki

I had the opportunitiy to take a backstage tour of Teatr Wielki, the Grand Opera House, in Warsaw.  Since Tom and I had attended an opera performance in the theatre in January it made it even cooler to go behind the stage and see how the performances all come together. 

A bit about the theater:

The Grand Theatre in Warsaw (Polish: Teatr Wielki w Warszawie), the Grand Theatre—National Opera is a theatre complex and opera company located on historic Theatre Square in Warsaw, Poland.

The theatre was inaugurated on February 24, 1833, with a production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville.

After the building's bombing and near-complete destruction in World War II, the theatre was rebuilt, and the building reopened on November 19, 1965, after having been closed for over twenty years.

Today there are over 1,000 employees who help the theater run every day.  And, the theater is used for both the Opera and ballet performances - so there is a ton of work since they have to turn the sets, costumes and performances around every 4 weeks or so.

Gorgeous glass sculptures in the lobby

Backstage rigging

Sets from the opera we saw, Nabbucco

Lots of options for hanging sets

Scenes for the upcoming opera



On stage facing the audience



Interesting props in storage

From high above the stage - where the lighting guys sit

More props

The costume room - The opera has over 30,000 costumes in storage dating back to the 70's.  They rent them out to other performing companies all over Europe.

The costumes went on and on...and we only saw one of three storage areas.

Sitting in the audience

The outside of the Teatr Wielki today