14th Mozart festival featuring all of Mozart's opera underway in Warsaw

Photo: www.wok.pol.pl

For the 14th consecutive year Warsaw is the venue for the Mozart Festival. The event is the brainchild of Stefan Sutkowski, the artistic director of the Warsaw Chamber Opera who many years ago conceived the idea of producing ALL of Mozart's opera. Gradually the central idea of the project emerged - that of blending the sound of the music with stage action in an interior, modeled on the old theatres of Vienna and Prague for which these operas were originally written.

The Warsaw Chamber Opera is ideally suited to the purpose. It is an 18th century structure with a small stage and an auditorium seating 160. The festival was launched in 1991, the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death, and has since been held every summer. Stefan Sutkowski:

"What is live opera? It is Mozart - they are performers and audience together. And the festival - it is something special. Sometimes the performance is good and sometimes it is extra, and they are waiting also to find that the last performance was better than the other. Not the premiere. The premiere is really every performance, because the audiences are different and they are waiting specially for the best performance that evening."

Apart from all the operas, the programme of the event includes the Requiem, vocal recitals and a wide range of Mozart's chamber music... As Stefan Sutkowski says the popularity of the festival has been steadily growing:

"Some of them come every year, for sometimes a few days, sometimes one week, sometimes more. Sometimes only for one performance - to see and return. And they are coming not only from Europe - from many, many other countries - from the United States, Australia, from many, many different places."

Audience member: "I'm a very great admirer of Polish art and culture and I must confess that having followed the productions of the Chamber Opera it gives me immense pleasure and pride to say that it's not inferior to some of the best productions you see abroad. You should be proud that you have some of the best singers in the world. The status of culture now is under tremendous threat in Poland and I think it's the duty of every lover of culture - whether in Poland or outside Poland - to come to rescue it so that we see such great productions and such wonderful opera houses giving pleasure to people in Poland and people from outside."

This year the Mozart festival is one in a series of events presenting the musical heritage of all of the 25 members of the European Union. It lasts until the end of the month. If you happen to be in Warsaw - don't miss a chance.