The opening\u00a0show is Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019 opera Samson and Delilah, starring tenor Nikolai Schukoff as Samson and mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili as Delilah.<\/p>\n
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The opera is conducted by Thomas Guggeis and features a performance by the Choir of Wroc\u0142aw’s National Forum of Music (NFM), which organises the festival.<\/p>\n
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This year’s programme\u00a0includes\u00a0works exploring themes\u00a0such as maturity and responsibility, according to artistic director Andrzej Kosendiak.<\/p>\n
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The\u00a0motto\u00a0of this year’s festival is „The Shadow Line,” a reference to the novel by Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad.<\/p>\n
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Kosendiak said the theme\u00a0refers to the transition into adulthood and the assumption of responsibility, both individually and as a society.<\/p>\n
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The world people know today is different from that of the past, he elaborated, while the future remains uncertain.<\/p>\n
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This year’s\u00a0festival features\u00a0works by J.S. Bach, Igor Stravinsky and Claudio Monteverdi, as well as Polish composers Henryk Miko\u0142aj G\u00f3recki, Stanis\u0142aw Moniuszko and Karol Szymanowski.<\/p>\n
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Also on the programme is Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas.<\/p>\n
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Next Thursday, former festival artistic director Giovanni Antonini will perform with the Italian ensemble Il Giardino Armonico, presenting 17th-century music by Monteverdi and Castello, among other works.<\/p>\n
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One of the festival’s special guests is veteran Polish conductor and composer Jerzy Maksymiuk, who turns 90 this year.<\/p>\n
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On September 11, he will conduct a concert featuring Debussy\u2019s La Mer and Stravinsky\u2019s Symphony of Psalms.<\/p>\n
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Concerts are taking place at venues including the National Forum of Music, the Pan Tadeusz Museum, the Old Town Hall and churches in Wroc\u0142aw, as well as in other cities in\u00a0Poland’s southwestern Lower Silesia region.<\/p>\n
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The festival will close on September 13 with Gustav Mahler\u2019s Symphony No. 6, performed by the Staatskapelle Dresden orchestra.<\/p>\n
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First held in 1966, Wratislavia Cantans is one of Poland’s oldest music festivals.<\/p>\n
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