page_title: Polish opera
section_title: Saxon era (1697-1763)
hierarchical_section_title: Polish opera / Saxon era (1697-1763)
caption_attribution_description: Johann Adolph Hasse
context_page_description: Polish opera may be broadly understood to include operas staged in Poland and works written for foreign stages by Polish composers, as well as opera in the Polish language.
  The tradition reaches back to Italian language entertainments of the baroque. Romantic opera in Polish flourished alongside nationalism after the partition and is exemplified by the work of Stanisław Moniuszko. In the 20th century Polish opera was exported and composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki wrote operas in other languages that were translated into Polish later.
context_section_description: The next kings John II Casimir of Poland, Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki and John III Sobieski were too busy fighting wars to show much concern for opera, although such works that did appear were highly esteemed. After the Elector of Saxony was voted King of Poland in 1697, the situation changed. The German ruler presided over a thriving operatic scene at his court in Dresden.  The first public opera house in Poland was opened in 1724. The great moderniser of Polish opera was another Saxon, King August III. In 1748 he built an opera house in which works by Italian and German composers were regularly staged. A star of European opera, the composer Johann Adolf Hasse, also arrived in Poland. His work there increased opera's popularity amongst the nobility and raised the artistic standards of Polish opera to an international level.  Hasse wrote the opera seria Zenobia, to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, especially for Warsaw in 1761.
caption: Johann Adolph Hasse
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