Following its highly successful guest performances in 2023, this year the Hungarian State Opera will visit the most populous city of the United Arab Emirates with productions of La bohème and Swan Lake, as well as a Beethoven concert. The ensembles of the OPERA will present a total of three opera and six ballet performances, along with one symphonic concert in Dubai between 18 and 28 September 2025.
Considered the most significant performing arts center of the region, the Dubai Opera, opened in 2016, will launch its 2025/26 season with the Hungarian State Opera’s production of Puccini’s La bohème, performed on three consecutive evenings. Kálmán Nádasdy’s nearly 90-year-old staging, with the touchingly beautiful sets and costumes by Gusztáv Oláh and Tivadar Márk, will be presented on 18, 19, and 20 September, right next to the Burj Khalifa. The leading roles will be sung in a double cast by István Horváth, Kammersänger of the season, and Adorján Pataki (Rodolfo), Orsolya Sáfár and Gabriella Létay Kiss (Mimì), as well as Mária Celeng and Opera Studio member Gabriella Rea Fenyvesi (Musetta), alongside Azat Malik, András Palerdi, Csaba Szegedi, and in two smaller roles, Kossuth Prize-winning Dénes Gulyás. The ensembles of the OPERA will be conducted by István Dénes, Liszt Prize-winning eternal member of the Hungarian State Opera.
Following the opera performances, the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra will give a symphonic concert of Beethoven’s works on 21 September, also under the baton of István Dénes. The programme, centered around the “magic of five,” features the composer’s Symphony No. 5 and Piano Concerto No. 5. The evening’s soloist will be Anna Tsybuleva, winner of the 2015 Leeds International Piano Competition, who over the past decade has given memorable concerts with renowned ensembles and in prestigious halls from London to Tokyo.
The following week, between 25 and 28 September, the Hungarian State Opera’s ballet company, the Hungarian National Ballet, will return to the stage of the Dubai Opera with Swan Lake, two years after their last appearance. To Tchaikovsky’s music, based on Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov’s 1895 choreography, Rudi van Dantzig and Toer van Schayk created a version in 1988 for the Dutch National Ballet, which has also been part of the Budapest Opera’s repertoire since 2015. In the 2023 production that attracted full houses, the principal roles will now be danced by Tatyjana Melnyik, Maria Yakovleva, Étoile of the season, and Maria Beck (Odette / Odile), Dmitry Timofeev, Louis Scrivener, and Boris Zhurilov (Siegfried), as well as Takaaki Okajima, Mikalai Radziush, and Vlagyiszlav Melnyik (Rothbart). Alongside the Hungarian National Ballet, students of the Hungarian National Ballet Institute, the OPERA’s ballet school, will also participate. The Hungarian State Opera Orchestra will be conducted by Thomas Herzog, the distinguished Artistic Director of Theater Basel.
A total of 283 artists and staff will take part in the ten performances of the Dubai tour, with sets, props, costumes, and instruments transported to the Gulf country in five containers. All expenses of the guest appearances are covered by the host. The Hungarian State Opera first performed at the Dubai Opera exactly two years ago, in September 2023, presenting Swan Lake and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. The five ballet and two opera performances, greeted with enthusiastic ovations, were attended by nearly 10,000 people. From the productions invited to this year’s Dubai series, La bohème will be performed at the Hungarian State Opera between 13 and 27 December 2025, while Swan Lake will be on stage between 25 and May 19 April 2026.
Photo by Dubai Opera
