Opera was brought to Poland by future King
Władysław IV Vasa within twenty years of the first opera presentations in
Florence. In 1628 he invited the first Italian opera company to Warsaw. Upon ascending the Polish throne in 1632, he built a theatre in his castle, and regular opera performances were produced there by an Italian company directed by
Marco Scacchi. The first public opera-theater in Poland, the
Operalnia in Warsaw, was opened on July 3, 1748. It was located in the
Saxon Garden (at today's intersection of Marszałkowska Street of Królewska Street) and functioned under royal patronage. The Operalnia's building was erected in 1725 at the initiative of Augustus II, costing 5000 ducats, as a rectangular structure divided into three parts. The National Theatre was founded in 1765, during the
Polish Enlightenment, by the country's
monarch,
Stanisław August Poniatowski. From 1774 on, opera, theatre and ballet performances were held in the
Radziwiłł Palace (today the official home of Poland's president). The first Polish opera was produced there on 11 July 1778,
Maciej Kamieński's
Poverty Made Happy, with
Wojciech Bogusławski's libretto based on a comedy by
Franciszek Bohomolec. In 1779-1833 performances took place in a new theatre building on
Krasiński Square, later called the National Theatre). ==Notable people==