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.
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.
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| Gorgeous glass sculptures in the lobby |
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| Backstage rigging |
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| Sets from the opera we saw, Nabbucco |
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| Lots of options for hanging sets |
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| Scenes for the upcoming opera |
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| On stage facing the audience |
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| Interesting props in storage |
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| From high above the stage - where the lighting guys sit |
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| More props |
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| 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. |
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| The costumes went on and on...and we only saw one of three storage areas. |
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| Sitting in the audience |
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| The outside of the Teatr Wielki today |
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