Gábor Keveházi will be Director of the

Hungarian National Ballet for another 5 years

 DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE (THE MAGIC FLUTE) IN NEW CAST

16 January 2010

Péter Fried, Viktória Varga, Dániel Pataki Potyók, Eszter Wierdl, Csaba Szegedi will perform Mozart’s evergreen opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) in the January 16 premiere of the third cast. Die Zaubeflöte is the joint production of the Hungarian State Opera Budapest and Vígszínház (Comedy Theatre, Budapest). The brilliant cast, the wonderfully simple and elevated music of Mozart as well as the stage-setting of Canadian set designer Michael Levine guarantee a unique operatic experience and aims at impressing the young generation as well. Conductors: Ádám Fischer, János Kovács, Géza Török, Ervin Lukács, director: László Marton. Further dates available throughout the season.

Hungarian State Opera House 2009/2010 Season

The 125th season of the Opera House
Information on the 2009/2010 season

The Opera House is 125 years old
Jubilee celebration series

Opera gala and festive concert
The Hungarian State Opera House will celebrate the 125th anniversary of the inauguration of the Ybl Palace with an opera gala and a festive concert on 26 and 27 September (Saturday and Sunday). On Sunday evening the opera will repeat the programme of the opening night of 27 September 1884:

• Ferenc Erkel: Bánk bán, Act I
• Ferenc Erkel: Hunyadi László, Overture
• Richard Wagner: Lohengrin, Act I

                                                                                                                                    
2009/2010
The programme of the new season

In 2008/2009, the Opera House successfully staged the eleven premieres planned for the 125th season. In the new season the institution will emphasise its unique role in disseminating the values of opera. By offering an especially wide repertoire, the Hungarian State Opera House seeks to satisfy the most diverse demands and stage productions which cater for the tastes of different generations.
Everybody can choose from the programme of the 2009/2010 season which contains 193 opera and 76 ballet performances; the programme calendar, which will appear in the near future, lists 8 premieres and 5 revivals. The Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra will give 12 concerts in the season.

Hungarian pieces in the repertoire of the 125 year-old Opera House
The jubilee celebration of the Opera House is an occasion which draws the attention to the neo-renaissance building of the Opera House designed by Miklós Ybl and our exceptional musical heritage at the same time. The premiere of Béla Bartók’s masterpiece Bluebeard’s Castle and Zoltán Kodály’s Spinning-Room will both be significant events. In November the Opera House will premiere Solar Eclipse, an opera by contemporary composer József Sári, who was awarded with the Kossuth Prize this year, and whose opera was inspired by Hungarian-born Arthur Koestler’s novel Darkness at Noon. The inclusion of Blood Wedding in the programme, an opera which can now be called a classic piece, composed by Kossuth Prize winner Sándor Szokolay is another example of the theatre’s commitment to Hungarian compositions.
Pieces by Hungarian composers in the forthcoming season:

• Béla Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle
• József Sári: Solar Eclipse
• Ferenc Erkel: Bánk bán
• Zoltán Kodály: Spinning Room
• Béla Bartók: The Wooden Prince
• Emil Petrovics: C’est la guerre 
• Ernõ Dohnányi: Variations on a Children’s Song
• György Ránki: The King’s New Clothes
• Sándor Szokolay: Blood Wedding

8 premieres
The audience’s favourites and contemporary pieces

20 September 2009
Benjamin Britten: The Little Sweep
Conductors: László Bartal and Géza Köteles
Director: Rita Bata

11 October 2009
Béla Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle
Conductor: Ádám Fischer
Director: Hartmut Schörghofer

7 November 2009
S. Rachmaninoff – M. Mussorgsky – R. Wagner – B. Eifman: The Brothers Karamazov (ballet)
Conductors: Ádám Medveczky and Kálmán Szennai
Choreographer: Boris Eifman

28 November 2009
József Sári: Solar Eclipse
Conductor: Zsolt Hamar
Director: Balázs Kovalik

25 December 2009
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Die Zauberflöte
Joint production of the Opera House and the Vígszínház (under discussion)
Conductors: Ádám Fischer, János Kovács, and Géza Török
Director: László Marton

20 & 21 March 2010
Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
Conductors: János Kovács and István Dénes
Director: Andrejs Zagar

29 May 2010
Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
In cooperation with the Palace of Arts,
performed in Béla Bartok National Concert Hall
Budapest Wagner Days, 2010.
Conductor: Ádám Fischer
Directors: Magdolna Parditka and Alexandra Szemerédy

5 June 2010
Modern ballet night
Choreographers: Robert North, András Lukács and Ohad Naharin

5 revivals
Opera and ballet

29 January 2010.
Emil Petrovics: C’est la guerre
Director: Miklós Gábor Kerényi
Ernõ Dohnányi – László Seregi: Variations on a Children’s Song – ballet

28 March 2010
Zoltán Kodály: Spinning Room
Director: Imre Kerényi
Béla Bartók: The Wooden Prince
Choreographer: László Seregi

29 April 2010
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: La clemenza di Tito
Director: Daisy Boschán

International conference
Opera Europa
16-18 October 2009
Opera Europa is a Brussels-based organisation representing European opera houses and festivals; it had 107 member institutions in 2008. This international organisation provides the opportunity for the representatives of opera houses – director generals, production and technical managers, marketing managers, fundraising experts and the leaders of costume workshops – to meet several times a year in order to exchange experience and views and learn about the latest technical facilities.
Nicholas Payne, director of Opera Europa, convenes a conference for the members twice a year. On the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Hungarian State Opera House, Opera Europa will meet in Budapest after its conferences in Cardiff, Dresden, Prague, Warsaw, Bregenz, Oslo and Barcelona. The 125th year-old Ybl Palace will house professional discussions and international workshops of hundreds of leading opera experts.

Success stories and values
Children’s premieres and jazz in the Opera
In 2009/2010, the Hungarian State Opera House will continue the success stories of the previous season.

• the season will begin with a premiere for children
• the programme will consist of a wide repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary music
• the programme “Jazz at the Opera” will continue
• Mayfest will be organised again in spring (2 to 13 May 2010)

It is the objective of the Opera House that the audience should not feel the effects of the economic depression either on the variety of the programme or the standards of the performances. Besides an efficient allocation of the available resources and funds, the Opera House also aims to

• maximise the capacity of the institution
• satisfy the various demands
• attract new social groups

Opera and Jazz
“Jazz at the Opera” gala
30 November 2009
“Jazz at the Opera”, a joint event of the Society of Hungarian Jazz Artists and the Opera House aims to invite representatives of Hungarian jazz as well as international stars with the pronounced objective of creating mutual accessibility for the fans of the two genres.

Mayfest 2010
Mozart, Strauss, Puccini, Rossini, Verdi
The positive feedback from the first Mayfest and its performances with capacity houses justify the continuation of this event. The presence of international stars brought a perceivable buzz in the operatic life of Budapest. The Opera House will organise the international opera festival again in the spring of 2010. The twelve-day-long event begins on 2 May.

• Mozart: La clemenza di Tito
• R. Strauss: Elektra
• Puccini: Tosca
• Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia
• Verdi: Nabucco
• Verdi: Don Carlo

The participation in international operatic life is not a one-way relationship; artists from the Hungarian State Opera House will appear on foreign stages too:
The company of the Opera House will premiere Sándor Szokolay’s Blood Wedding in Karlsruhe on 17 and 18 April 2010.
Negotiations are underway with the Bratislava Opera concerning an agreement about regular guest performances.

9 categories and 38 types of season ticket
Flexible choices
When planning the season tickets for the coming season, the Hungarian State Opera House paid special attention to the difficulties caused by the economic situation. The season tickets are offered at affordable prices, and they all offer various choices for opera lovers. In the case of existing season ticket types the price increase is only minimal, changes were only made to the borders of sectors and the price bands of each sector.
The 38 different season tickets, in line with the general objectives of the Opera House, were adjusted to the diverse needs of different generations. Thematic season tickets are available according to chronological order and composers. The newest season ticket named “New Wave” was especially designed for students, giving them the opportunity to choose modern performances.
New feature in cooperation with the Palace of Arts: “Delly Rózsi” season ticket also includes a performance of Tristan und Isolde, a production of the Opera House performed in the Palace of Arts.
Renewal of season tickets for Opera House: 18-21 May.
Purchase of season tickets by new guests: 25-28 May.
Renewal and purchase of season tickets online: www.jegymester.hu Info: www.opera.hu/berlet
Distribution of season tickets will be held from 10 am to 5 pm in the cloakroom on the ground floor of the Opera House. The remaining season tickets can be purchased from the Organisation Department of the Opera House from 2 to 30 June.
Information by phone: 332 7914, and by e-mail: info@opera.hu or jegy@opera.hu.

Ballet
Plans of the Hungarian National Ballet for the coming season
An international ballet gala in two parts, “World Stars in the Opera House”, will be held again on 19 September 2009. The Hungarian National Ballet celebrates the 125th anniversary of the Opera House with this event.
Premieres:
The Brothers Karamazov, a ballet by Boris Eifman, who lives and works in St. Petersburg, will be premiered on 7 and 8 November 2009.
A modern ballet night will be held in June 2010; its programme includes:
Robert North’s Death and the Maiden,
a choreography especially created for the Hungarian National Ballet by Ohad Naharin, a modern ballet dancer from Israel,
Whirlpool, a choreography by András Lukács, who lives and works in Vienna.
            
A special event of the Hungarian National Ballet will be the theatre’s principal choreographer László Seregi’s 80th birthday, which will be celebrated with the performance of the master’s classic piece Kiss me, Kate on 12 December 2009. Besides László Seregi’s repertoire pieces, his ballets Variations on a Children’s Song and The Wooden Prince will also be included in the programme.
            
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Balanchine Night, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Kiss me, Kate, La Bayadere, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sylvia will remain in the repertoire.
            
Slava Muchamedov, rehearsing ballet master of La Bayad?re and Eidar Aliev will help the work of the Hungarian National Ballet in the next season again. Élisabeth Platel, former principal soloist of the Opéra de Paris and Aurora Bosch, former prima ballerina of the Cuban National Ballet have also been invited.
Negotiations are underway with renowned ballet star Joel Carreno from Cuba, a regular guest of the American Ballet Theatre, who might join the company of the Hungarian National Ballet for a year.
Based on this season’s experience, the Hungarian National Ballet will organise an international ballet class and dance casting, supplemented by a conference of European directors of ballet.
Further information: www.hnbcsi.com

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