National Theatre, Warsaw
The National Theatre (Teatr Narodowy) in Warsaw, Poland, is part of the Grand Theatre complex with the National Opera on Theatre Square.
It was founded in 1765 during the Polish Enlightenment by King Stanisław August Poniatowski.
Opera came to Poland earlier. In 1628, King Władysław IV Vasa invited the first Italian opera company to Warsaw. He built a theatre in his castle in 1632, where an Italian company led by Marco Scacchi performed.
The first public opera-theatre in Poland, the Operalnia, opened in 1748 in the Saxon Garden. It was funded by Augustus II, and the building had been completed in 1725.
From 1774, opera, theatre and ballet performances were held in the Radziwiłł Palace (today the presidential palace). The first Polish opera was produced there on 11 July 1778: Poverty Made Happy, with a libretto by Wojciech Bogusławski based on a play by Franciszek Bohomolec.
From 1779 to 1833, performances took place in a new theatre on Krasiński Square, later called the National Theatre. Bogusławski is regarded as the father of the Polish National Theatre.
In 1785, a troupe of His Majesty's Dancers joined the theatre, led by ballet masters François Gabriel Le Doux and Daniel Curz.
On 17 March 1830, Chopin premiered his Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, at the theatre.
The theatre closed after the November 1830 Uprising, but it was revived in 1924 during the Second Polish Republic.
Under the Polish People's Republic (1945–89), government pressures at times affected the quality of productions.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 15:12 (CET).