42 Best Performing Arts in Poland

Dedicated to early music (Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque), the festival is held each year from the last Monday of Lent to Easter Monday. The program is built around the Easter theme and attracts an impressive lineup of famous contributors: Jordi Savall and his Hespèrion XXI; Marc Minkowski with Musiciens de Louvre-Grenoble; Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante. Tickets, available online and from Cultural Information Point, should be booked well in advance.

Kraków's oldest and most renowned theater stages mostly Polish and international classical dramas—but it has found more recent fame for creative and contemporary takes on the classics, and for not avoiding "difficult" subjects. Although plays are in Polish language, English translations are often (but not always) provided in the form of supertitles screened above the stage. "Stary" enjoys the status of a national theater and is named after Helena Modrzejewska, a 19th-century Polish actress who performed on the American stage.

"Guliwer" Teatr Lalek is one of Warsaw's excellent puppet theaters.

The popular Bagatela is a venue for children's theater as well as adult drama and farce.

An excellent period-instruments orchestra and chamber choir, it's led by Tomasz Adamus. In their varied repertoire you will find everything from chamber recitals to grand oratorios. The group is famous for unusual projects in which they spice up "serious" classics with elements of lighter entertainment, performing in such unexpected locations as a fast-food joint or a forest at the outskirts of the city. Some of their most ambitious projects feature "Beethoven Extreme," when they performed all nine Beethoven's symphonies in one day in 2016.

Tickets for many events can be bought at EMPiK, a local chain of shops.

Kraków's symphony gives frequent concerts.

The philharmonic hosts an excellent season of concerts, with visits from world-renowned performers and orchestras as well as Polish musicians. Very popular concerts of classical music for children—run for years by Jadwiga Mackiewicz, who is herself almost a national institution—are held here on Sunday at 11 (for younger children, 3–6) and at 2 (for children 7–12); admission begins at zł 28.

There are a lot of outdoor screenings during Filmowa Stolica, the city's summer film festival. The screenings are held at venues all over town.

Don't count on seeing many Polish films while visiting Warsaw; only one cinema specializes in Polish features: Iluzjon Filmoteki Narodowej. You will also find art movies and even festivals of silent movies in its repertory. Recently renovated, the 1950s cinema is now a listed building, a great example of postwar modernism. Standing in a green square in the Old Mokotów district, its characteristic purplish blue neon sign beckoning from the distance, "Iluzjon" is one of Warsaw's magical places. There is a pleasant cafe inside, called "Iluzja."

You won't find box-office blockbusters at the stylish Kino Muranów, the favorite choice of serious cinemaniacs.

It's a pleasant "city-plex" with three screens in the upper floors of the "Under the Rams" Palace (the entrance is through the courtyard on the left). It won several awards, including "Poland's Best Cinema" and "Europe's Best Cinema" and both titles are well-deserved. It often becomes a showcase of world cinema, showing both early and contemporary moving pictures from around the globe, often in the frame of thematic film festivals. It is perhaps the only place in town where you can watch Polish movies with English subtitles.

Tiny Kino.LAB is a part of the Center for Contemporary Art at the Ujazdowski Castle, showing experimental art films, video art, and even kitschy 1950s science-fiction movies. In summer, the cinema goes open-air (the screen is moved to the castle's courtyard).

Performances by Kraków's most prominent dance company (as well as other dance troupes) are held at the Nowohuckie Centrum Kultury (Nowa Huta Cultural Centre). Near Nowa Huta's Central Square, the Center is a 20- to 30-minute tram ride or a 10-minute taxi ride from Kraków's Old Town.

The center shows movies from Hollywood and Europe, almost always in the original language with Polish subtitles. All Polish cinemas show movies in their original versions, in contrast with Polish TV channels, where monotonous dubbing prevails.

This new building of the Kraków Opera, designed by a Krakovian architect Romuald Loegler a couple of tram stops from the heart of the Stare Miasto, was inaugurated in 2008. It's now the permanent home of the Kraków Opera and Ballet, Kraków Opera Orchestra and Choir, and the Children's Choir. There are performances for audiences of all ages including international opera classes, works of Polish composers, and operas for children. Book your tickets well in advance, as these shows remain unceasingly popular.

Local and international performers take to the stage at Gdańsk's Opera, at the Filharmonia Bałtycka (Baltic Philharmonic).

Housed in a beautifully restored 19th-century theater, Opera Kameralna, the Warsaw chamber opera, has an ambitious program and a growing reputation for quality performances. They are the organizers of the annual Mozart Festival, held in June 2016 for the 26th time.

Organ recitals can be found in many of Kraków's churches throughout the summer season. With an impressive 50-years-long tradition, the Organ Music Days, usually in June, rates among the best organ music events in Europe.

The Royal Castle has regular concerts in its stunning Great Assembly Hall.

Held every autumn, usually in October, the festival is dedicated to performing modern classics. In previous years, festival stars have included Sigur Rós, Kronos Quartet, Aphex Twin, Steve Reich, and Kraftwerk.

A tiny theater in the cellar of the Town Hall Tower, it stages small-scale dramas in front of a bare-brick backdrop.

Kraków's city orchestra performs in different venues all over town. They are not only about Mozart and Strauss: the Sinfonietta does not shrink from playing film scores or cooperating with contemporary avant-garde composers.