As one of the highlights of the 2025 autumn season at the Eiffel Art Studios, Péter Eötvös’s opera Valuska returns to the stage for the first time since its 2023 world premiere. The work by the world-renowned composer, who passed away last year, and which won the category of Best World Premiere at the 2024 International Opera Awards, is performed three times during the season between 17 and 24 October.
Péter Eötvös received a commission from the Hungarian State Opera in 2018 to compose his only Hungarian-language opera. The Kossuth Prize-winning composer, who was also awarded the Order of Saint Stephen, chose as the basis for his work László Krasznahorkai’s The Melancholy of Resistance, the novel published in 1989 and recipient of the International Man Booker Prize. Despite his advancing illness, Eötvös closely followed the preparations for the premiere and personally attended the world premiere at the Eiffel Art Studios in December 2023, which turned out to be his last public appearance.
From Krasznahorkai’s sombre, surreal novel – adapted earlier by Béla Tarr into the film Werckmeister Harmonies – Eötvös and his co-librettists Mari Mezei and dramaturg Kinga Keszthelyi sought to create a performance that combined the genres of opera and theatre with the grotesque. Under the sensitive direction of Bence Varga, the title role of Valuska is once again be performed by Zsolt Haja, just as at the world premiere, with other leading roles portrayed by Adrienn Miksch (Mrs. Pflaum), Tünde Szabóki (Tünde), Mária Farkasréti (Peasant Woman), András Hábetler (The Professor), Krisztián Cser (Man in a broadcloth coat / Soldier), and István Horváth (Director). The Opera Orchestra and Chorus are conducted by Kálmán Szennai.
Beside Valuska, for which tickets, as with other Hungarian repertoire productions, are available at a 50% discount off the base price, the Hungarian State Opera launches ticket sales for further productions announced at the Eiffel Art Studios. Alongside popular youth performances such as Little Sleeping Beauty, Little Swans Lake, Stephen, the King (Junior), and The Magic Flute for Children, the Hungarian National Ballet Institute and the Opera Children’s Chorus are also preparing two world premieres. In February 2026, ballet students will present Little Coppélia, an adaptation of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s tale set to Léo Delibes’s beloved music, under the artistic direction of Dace Radina, while the children’s chorus will stage Péter Tóth’s opera for young audiences, Beauty and the Beast, directed by Attila Toronykőy. For families, the OPERA’s artistic complex offers playful explorations through the guided tours of An Eyeful of the Eiffel with Háry János. Young adults will be welcomed with three Mozart operas in keeping with the season’s theme. Così fan tutte will be seen in a new production by Kriszta Székely, while Die Entführung aus dem Searil directed by Miklós H. Vecsei, and L'oca del Cairo, ossia Lo sposo deluso staged by Attila Toronykőy will also return to the repertoire. In the third season of the Prima Donnas +2 Heroes series, the OPERA's acclaimed Kossuth Prize-recipient artists will once again give piano-accompanied aria recitals: Mihály Kálmándy, Klára Kolonits, Ildikó Komlósi, Gyöngyi Lukács, Erika Miklósa, Eszter Sümegi, and Ilona Tokody are joined for the first time by Gábor Bretz. For lovers of modern ballet, the show Bittersweet Comedies will feature popular choreographies such as Johan Inger’s Walking Mad, Alexander Ekman’s Cacti, and Hans van Manen’s 5 Tangos, while at the closing of the season Marianna Venekei’s dance drama A Streetcar Named Desire, set to music by László Dés, will return once again.
Tickets are available on the OPERA website (www.opera.hu), at the Opera House box office, at the Simándy Wing customer service, and one hour before performances at the Eiffel Art Studios.
Photo by Attila Nagy
