What to expect at the 3rd Baltic Opera Festival this July?
The Baltic Opera Festival returns to the Tri-City for the third time July 10–16, 2025. This year’s repertoire blends classical works with contemporary themes, addressing issues that resonate with contemporary reality: loneliness, exclusion and the condition of the individual in an uncertain world.
On July 11 and 13, Richard Strauss’s “Salome,” a biblical tale of loneliness, will be performed twice on the stage of the Forest Opera in Sopot. The ascetic prophet Jokanaan (John the Baptist), a preacher of repentance, seems to offer Salome an escape from this world. The Judean princess, daughter of Herodias, is fascinated by the prophet, but he rejects her longing. In a burst of immature rage, she demands his head. When Salome kisses the prophet’s bloody lips, her stepfather Herod orders her execution. Under the musical direction of Lothar Zagrosek, Jennifer Holloway will portray Salome, Gerhard Siegel will play Herod, Claudia Mahnke Herodias, and Omer Kobiljak will sing the role of Narraboth. The staging concept have been developed by Tomasz Konieczny, and the set designed by Boris Kudlička. The production is directed by Romuald Wicza-Pokojski.
Another festival highlight is “St. Luke Passion” — a monumental vocal-instrumental work composed by Krzysztof Penderecki in 1966 to commemorate the millennium of Poland’s Christianization. The piece is based on texts from the Gospel of Luke, as well as liturgical and Latin passion hymns. On July 12, this extraordinary work will be presented for the first time at the Forest Opera in Sopot as a performative oratorio enriched with stage creation. Directed by Barbara Wiśniewska, the solo parts will be performed by Olga Bezsmertna, Adrian Eröd, and Matthias Goerne.
The dramatic song cycle “Wòlô Bòskô” — compositions for baritone and piano by Łukasz Godyla, based on selected Kashubian texts and traditional melodies — will be presented on July 15 at the Baltic Opera. The selection of texts and melodies, which serve as the basis of the work, was made by the singer Damian Wilma, a native of the Kashubian region and an admirer of its culture. He will perform on stage alongside Danuta Stenka.
After its world premiere at the Malta Festival in Poznań (June 27 and 28), Alek Nowak’s opera “The Monster’s Voice,” inspired by the life of Solomon Perel, will be performed at the Baltic Opera on July 12. Countertenor Jan Jakub Monowid will sing the title role of the teenage Jew who hid in the ranks of the Hitlerjugend during the Second World War.
We set this contemporary story in the world of myth to reach the roots of fear, hatred, and love, seeking in them a timeless truth about humanity, explains director Agnieszka Smoczyńska. We seek to combine the operatic form with realistic elements. The production draws on documentary material about the creation of a museum exhibit that tells the story of how the ‘other,’ the ‘foreign,’ and the ‘unknown’ were demonized—turned into monsters—and then exterminated.
The Baltic Opera Festival was founded by Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, with its inaugural edition held in the Tri-City area in 2023. Its mission is to present premiere opera productions featuring soloists, conductors, and creatives from Poland and around the world. The festival also revives the pre-war tradition of staging operas at the Forest Opera, a legacy that earned Sopot the nickname “Bayreuth of the North” in the 1930s.
Full Baltic Opera Festival program available here.
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