Warsaw Chamber Opera: Home of the Mozart Festival

The Warsaw Chamber Opera (Warszawska Opera Kameralna) was founded in 1961. Its first stage premiere, Pergolesi’s La serva padrona, was performed on 4 September 1961. The repertoire spans medieval mystery plays, early and late Baroque opera, classical opera, works by Rossini and Donizetti, and contemporary stage works, several of them commissioned by the company.

Since 15 October 1986 the company has performed in its own theatre at al. Solidarności 76b, a historic building dating to 1775 that is listed in Warsaw’s register of historical monuments and, in the company’s words, offers an intimate interior and excellent acoustics.

A second stage, Basen Artystyczny, opened in January 2019 in the 1930s Polish YMCA building on Konopnicka Street near Plac Trzech Krzyży. That building once housed a gym and a 25-metre swimming pool, played a role in maintaining insurgent passage during the Warsaw Uprising, and was remembered by Leopold Tyrmand in his Dziennik 1954.

The company’s flagship artistic endeavour is the Mozart Festival, first held in 1991 to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death and running for 32 years, according to the opera. Performances take place every May, June and July at the theatre and other historic venues in the capital; the company describes it as the only event in Europe presenting the entire body of Mozart’s work performed by the artists of a single opera theatre. Its other festivals have included the Baroque Opera Festival, the Claudio Monteverdi Festival, the Gioacchino Rossini Festival and the Polish Contemporary Opera Festival.

The company tours widely - it has staged the complete Mozart works in Vienna and toured Japan seven times with more than 150 performances. As of 23 October 2026, its upcoming performances listed Vivaldi’s Judith triumphant on 24-25 October, Handel’s Giulio Cesare on 6-8 November and A Ball at the Opera with Leszek Możdżer on 19 November. Tickets are sold through operakameralna.pl.