In Wrocław, south-western Poland, audiences will be offered a selection of works by Schubert, Ponchielli, Mozart and Saint-Saëns performed by acclaimed singers Mojca Erdmann, Agnieszka Rehlis, and Matthias Goerne.
The programme of the concert at the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice includes arias and duets from operas by Rossini, Puccini, Verdi, and Gounod, as well as hits from operettas by Carl Zeller and Johann Strauss II.
The Silesian Opera in nearby Bytom organizes “A Viennese Night”, focusing exclusively on Johann Strauss II as a tribute to the composer’s birth bicentenary.
Film music is the theme of the New Year’s Eve gala by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, with excerpts from soundtracks for such classics as High Noon, Ben-Hur, Farewell to Africa, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Lawrence of Arabia, Godfather, Titanic and Star Wars.
In Warsaw, the National Philharmonic’s sold-out event features choruses from Verdi’s Nabucco, Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz, Bedřich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Charles Gounod’s Faust, and Richard Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, in addition to opera and operetta overtures.
Meanwhile, the Polish National Opera stages a concert under the motto “An American in Paris”. It comprises excerpts from Leonard Bernstein’s Candide and West Side Story, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and An American in Paris, as well as Jacques Offenbach’s Overture to The Beautiful Helen, and arias from the composer’s The Tales of Hoffmann, La Périchole and La Fille du tambour-major, sung by soprano Aleksandra Olczyk, mezzo-soprano Valentina Pluzhnikova and tenor Oreste Cosimo.
(mk)