Travel: Krakow Summer Opera Season at Wawel Castle

In the walls of Wawel castle on the night of midsummer, an atmosphere of enchantment abounded. The mauve and violet light of the sky melted into the golden lamps that fell onto the cobble-stone pathways, this skimmed and bounced across gabled iron rooftops of the castle.

The light from the opera ballet performance stage shone in a dramatic cascade of red and green. Women in high-heels stalked past draped in pashminas, they caressed their perfectly twisted french braids before taking their seats, led by men in suits who gentle caressed the curve of the womens’ backs as they sat down, suddenly there was an audible intake of breath as the performance began.

The strawberry moon of midsummer hung low like heavy honeycomb in the sky, as the world turned from golden jute to amber and to indigo and eventually to an enlivened silver grey.