new season at the Slovak National Theatre

It is no longer unusual to set out from Vienna to go to Bratislava and attend an opera. It takes less than an hour to reach the Slovak National Theatre where people can enjoy performances of the highest quality at more reasonable prices. The funny thing is that there is a trend for tourists to austria to go to the opera in Vienna and middle income viennese to come to the one in Bratislava.

The productions of opera, ballet and plays at the Slovak National Theatre are generally excellent.

Since its founding in 1920 the Slovak National Theatre has become an inseparable and highly revered part of cultural life in Slovakia. Today the Slovak National Theatre has three professional ensembles: ballet, drama and opera. The theatre has two venues: the historic city theatre,

built in 1886 to plans by the Viennese architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer, and the new theatre building which opened on the banks of the River Danube in 2007 (see top of this page). The Slovak National Theatre is a classical repertory theatre with performances every day during the season which runs from the beginning of September until the end of June.

Famous soprano Gabriela Beňačková is keen to engage young talented artists

Eight plays were presented by the Slovak National Theatre in the 2008/09 season: Besides classics such as Mother Courage by Bertolt Brecht, Jean Anouilh’s The Waltz of the Toreadors and the dramatisation of the novel by Lev Tolstoy Anna Karenina, the play Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, which was later turned into a film, and Odcházeni (Leaving) by the dramatist and former president of the Czech Republic Václav Havel.