Evelyn Herlitzius was to have sung Loenora in Fidelio, however, because of illness, the opera is looking for a replacement, Vass said.
The jubilee season offers the opera an opportunity for artistic and professional renewal, as well as a chance to decide on its profile and how it is to operate in the future, Vass said at the pre-season press conference, flanked by musical director Ádám Fischer and artistic director Balázs Kovalik.
The season, to feature eleven premieres, will start on September 25 with a favourite from the company's repertoire: Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. The performance will take place at the opera's other venue, the Thália Theatre, where altogether 41 performances are scheduled during the season. At the main opera house on Andrássy út, 240 performances will take place. The first one will be Ferenc Erkel's Bánk Bán, on September 26. The opera house has just undergone its biggest technical renovation in the last 15 years, Vass noted.
A study on the opera's Erkel Theatre was to have been discussed by a cabinet meeting next week, but it was pushed back a week on the government's agenda, Vass said.
Vass said he thought a new multi-functional performance space should be built at the site of the Erkel Theatre. This is necessary not only because the main opera house must be renovated, but because it has to be expanded too, he explained. Because of its location, the only possibility of expanding the building is to dig down. In the best-case scenario, the renovated and expanded main opera house could be opened for the company's 130th season, Vass said.
Youth and career-starters will be one of the focuses of the opera's 125th season, with the aim of making the opera-goers of the future. This explains the choice of the season's first premiere: King Pomade's New Clothes, directed by Attila Toronyköy.
At the premiere of Fidelio, Ádám Fischer will take the conductor's podium in the pit for the first time.
Fischer said he though it important that the opera's 125th season started with a premiere that had not been heard in the repertoire for a decade.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
