The Hungarian State Opera's 2008-2009 programme - including performances at the Thália Theatre, which is being used while the opera's Erkel Theatre is being refurbished - has 292 performances, including eleven premieres.
Among the performances is a condensed version of György Ránki's opera King Pomade's New Clothes for children directed by Attila Toronykőy. Balázs Kovalik will bring Beethoven's Fidelio to the stage, conducted by Ádám Fischer and featuring performances by Thomas Moser and Evelyn Herlitzius. Miklós Szinetár's Carmen will remain on the programme, but a new production, called Carmen CET (Central European Time), prepared by Péter Telihay, will come to the Thália Theatre in November.
Puccini week will kick off in December with a reworking of Manon Lescaut, to be followed by performances of La Bohéme, Tosca, Madame Butterfly and Turnadot.
In February, the opera will put on The Barber of Seville, directed by András Békés, and Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, directed by János Szikora, will come to the Thália Theatre.
Sándor Zsótér's production of Orpheus and Euripides under the baton of Ádám Fischer will be performed just twice during the Budapest Spring Festival with Andrea Rost in the female lead.
On April 30, the long-awaited premiere of Balázs Kovalik's Xerxes with Andrea Meláth and Éva Várhélyi is slated to take place, launching the opera's baroque series.
The season will finish with a production not seen in the city since 1856: Verdi's The Sicilian Vespers directed by Andrei Serban.
On April 29, the May Celebration festival will open with a concert of songs sung by Cecilia Bartoli and guests Elena Mosuc, Charles Castronovo, Renato Bruson, Sylvie Valeyre, Marcello Giordani, Michele Crider, Gustavo Porta, Juan Pons and Roberto Forlani.
On the progarmme of the Hungarian National Ballet are performances of Anna Karenina, Swan Lake, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Gone With the Wind and - a the Thália Theatre - Zorba. The Russian Boris Eifman will bring his production of The Brothers Karamazov to the stage, and the company will premiere a production of Petipa's La Bayad?re, one of the most difficult classical ballets.
The Hungarian National Ballet will travel to the United States in 2009 as part of the Hungarian Cultural Season in New York and Washington D.C.
Source: Fidelio.hu / Photo: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
