The Hungarian State Opera has announced plans to hold more than 2,000 programs during the new season, it has been reported.
The “Hungarian Season” will feature pieces by countless major Hungarian composers, choreographers and directors, while over the course of a few weeks, the May Festival will showcase two centuries of Hungarian opera history, from József Ruzitska to Levente Gyöngyösi.
In addition to the 28 opera and ballet premieres, the season will also include a steady stream of musicals, grand operettas, concerts, talk programs as well as interactive family and children’s events.
What's more, plans for the opening of a new venue are underway and set for completion in June 2017.
The public will be treated to the likes of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites and the ballet Le Corsaire, choreographed to music by Adam.
In 2017, the Hungarian audience will get their first look at Péter Eötvös’s opera Love and Other Demons.
The string of world premieres include unique productions such as Love, inspired by the Károly Makk film, A Streetcar Named Desire set to music by László Dés, a practically unknown opera fragment by Mozart, as well as a composition by Rautavaara – The Mine – that has never before been performed on any of the world’s opera stages.
The extraordinarily broad offering of operas again includes a few popular pieces that are being renewed: The Spinning Room, Lucia di Lammermoor and Bánk bán will all be mounted in productions stamped with the names of directors Michał Znaniecki, Máté Szabó and Attila Vidnyánszky, while Géza M. Tóth continues to direct the Ring cycle with Siegfried.
Throughout the course of the season, a number of international stars will arrive in Hungary for solo recitals, including Edita Gruberová and Renée Fleming, as well as René Pape, one of the world’s most sought-after basses, who will be appearing in this country for the first time with a recital of arias on the stage of the Opera House.
Returning to sing opera arias for the centenary of the birth of legendary Hungarian tenor József Simándy will be star tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who this time will be making his debut on the stage of the Erkel Theatre.
The ranks of our internationally renowned artists also include our Hungarian luminaries Andrea Rost, Erika Miklósa, Ildikó Komlósi, Csilla Boross, Levente Molnár and Gábor Bretz, who will be appearing in countless roles.
Beside these performers, around 120 Hungarian artists will be taking the stage alongside visitors from abroad such as Iréne Theorin, Erwin Schrott, Rafel Rojas, Leo Nucci, Tommi Hakala, Tetiana Zhuravel, Jürgen Sacher, Egils Silins, Kamen Chanev, Kristian Benedikt, Ivan Magrì, Michael Kupfer, Marcus Jupither, Karine Babajanyan and Marcello Giordani: every one of them a star of the international opera world.
The Hungarian State Opera is also the home of the Hungarian National Ballet and the oldest orchestra in Hungary, the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, which was established in 1853 and serves as the orchestra of the Opera.
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