Bydgoszcz, a city for opera lovers

This year the Bydgoszscz Opera Festival is celebrating the completion of the city's opera house. The festival was established 14 years ago to raise money to finish the construction of the building. "Our aim was to open an opera building. We hoped that the performances would be an engine to drive construction," says Ewa Chałat from Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz. Now, 30 years after building was begun the opera house is complete and fully furnished.

Fourteen years ago Maciej Figas, the director of Opera Nova, decided to invite companies from Polish opera houses and theaters to the empty, unfinished building. Figas' idea turned out to be successful, and from a single event it evolved into a festival.

With the new building now complete the aims of the festival have changed. "We would like the Opera Festival's performances to be the most interesting musical achievements of the year," says Chałat.

Each year, Opera Nova invites operas and ballets from Poland and abroad to show their latest productions. This year's festival will open with Różycki's Pan Twardowski, which will be performed by Opera Nova's own singers and ballet dancers. Among the guests this year will be artists from Baltic Opera, who will perform Richard Strauss' The Knight of the Rose. The Wrocław Opera will perform two productions - Ester by Tomasz Praszczałek and Szymanowski's Hagith. The Gdynia Musical Theater is set to perform Kiss Me Kate by Cole Porter.

Foreign companies include Complexions Contemporary Ballet from the US who will perform during the ballet evening, and the Brno National Theater from the Czech Republic which will put on a production of Dvorák's opera Rusalka.

The festival runs from April 28 to May 12 . For more information log on to www.opera.bydgoszcz.pl