Shortly after directing Lajos Parti Nagy and Ferenc Darvas's Ibusár at the Budapest Operetta Theatre's Warehouse Theatre, Béres was off to Yekaterinburg to bring Franz Lehár's Gypsy Love to the stage at the Sverdlovsk Music Theatre. Béres would later receive another invitation to direct the love story for the Szeged Open-air Festival in the summer.
"It's a tremendous advantage that my production of Gypsy Love also came to Yekaterinburg. I was able to try a lot of things during the two-month rehearsal period, and I can apply the experience in summer in Szeged, as well as when the production comes to Nagymező utca (the home of the Budapest Operetta Theatre) tentatively in the 2010/2011 season," Béres said. The premiere in Yekaterinburg, on March 18, received such a standing ovation as is rare for such performances, he added.
Béres said he would bring a production of Rigoletto to the stage of the Cowell Theatre in San Francisco, "the most European of American cities", on April 17.
The opera's director Barnaby Palmer had long followed Béres's work at the Budapest Operetta Theatre. He decided to invite Béres as a guest after his production of Baroness Lili was nominated in the best operetta/musical category at Russia's biggest theatre festival in St. Petersburg.
Béres's concept for the opera places it in Chicago during the Great Depression.
"I'm working with a very professional team," said Béres. "But they had high expectations: I had to present my entire rehearsal plan, broken down day-by-day and hour-by-hour for the three-week rehearsal period."
In May, Béres will bring Jacques Offenbach's Gaîté Parisienne, which he has already directed in Budapest, to St. Petersburg.
Photo: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
