Hungarian State Opera: Shakespeare400+ Festival is coming soon

With the end of the Shakespeare season approaching, the Hungarian State Opera will be organising its biggest festival ever – and certainly its most varied – between May 17 and 2 June 2016.

While it won’t be easy to exceed the scale of 2014’s Strauss150 festival or the scope of the previous year’s series on the theme of Faust, the unmatched influence of the “Swan of Avon” nevertheless ensures that this year will see premieres of 17 different adaptations at three different venues (the Opera House, Erkel Theatre, and the Music Academy), most of them more than once, and with several Hungarian premieres among them as well.

Programme of the Shakespeare400+ Festival

Purcell: The Fairy Queen – 18 May 2016, Erkel Theatre
Excerpts from the new production

Bernstein: West Side Story – 22, 26 May 2016, Erkel Theatre
Musical
Conductor: István Dénes
Director: Péter Novák
Cast: Boldizsár László, András Káldi Kiss, Lúcia Megyesi Schwartz

Gounod: Roméo et Juliette – 28 May 2016, Erkel Theatre
Concert version
Conductor: Christian Badea
Cast: Ivan Magri, Zita Szemere, László Szvétek, Csaba Szegedi, Ágnes Anna Kun, Gábor Bretz, Gergely Boncsér, Éva Balatoni, Tamás Busa, Lajos Geiger

Seregi–Goldmark–Hidas: The Taming of the Shrew – 18, 20 May 2016, Opera House Ballet
Conductor: István Silló
Choreographer: László Seregi
Featuring the artists of the Hungarian National Ballet

Szokolay: Hamlet – 19 May 2016, Erkel Theatre
Concert version and live CD-recording
Conductor: János Kovács

Verdi: Falstaff – 20, 22 May 2016, Erkel Theatre
Opera
Conductor: Marcus Bosch
Director: Arnaud Bernard
Cast: Ambrogio Maestri, Na Gunyong, Péter Balczó, Zoltán Megyesi, Géza Gábor, János Szerekován, Beatrix Fodor, Orsolya Sáfár, Bernadett Wiedemann, Erika Gál

Adès: The Tempest – 21, 25, 28 May, 1 June 2016, Opera House
Hungarian premiere
Conductor: Péter Halász
Director: Ludger Engels
Cast: Franco Pomponi, Erika Miklósa, István Horváth, Andrea Szántó, Péter Balczó, István Kovácsházi, Tamás Tarjányi, Krisztián Cser, Zsolt Haja, András Palerdi

Verdi: Macbeth – 22, 26 May 2016, Opera House
Opera
Conductor: Renato Palumbo
Director: Miklós Szinetár
Cast: Lado Ataneli, István Rácz, Szilvia Rálik, Nadin Haris, István Kovácsházi, Gergely Boncsér, Ferenc Cserhalmi, Sándor Egri

Nicolai: The Merry Wives of Windsor – 24, 31 May 2016, Erkel Theatre
Singspiel
Musical direction: Dániel Erdélyi
Featuring the artists of the Hungarian State Opera Choir

Bellini: The Capulets and the Montagues – 23 May 2016, Erkel Theatre
Concert version
Conductor: György Vashegyi
Cast: Klára Kolonits, Szilvia Vörös, András Palerdi, Gyula Rab, András Kiss
Featuring the Dohnányi Orchestra, Budafokand the National Choir

Verdi: Otello – 24, 27 May 2016, Opera House
Opera
Conductor: Gergely Madaras
Director: Stefano Poda
Cast: Roberto Aronica, Andrea Rost, Mihály Kálmándi, Judit Németh, Gergely Boncsér

Britten: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – 27, 29 May 2016, Music Academy
Opera
Conductor: Dominic Wheeler
Director: Máté Szabó
Featuring the students of the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy

Wolf-Ferrari: Sly – 27, 29 May 2016, Erkel Theatre
Opera
Conductor: Sándor Gyüdi
Director: Pál Göttinger
Cast: Boldizsár László, Zoltán Kelemen, Krisztina Kónya, Antal Cseh

Reimann: Lear – 29, 31 May 2016, Opera House
Opera
Conductor: Stefan Soltész
Director: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Staged by: Ferenc Anger
Cast: Tómas Tómasson, István Kovács, Zsolt Haja, Gergely Ujvári, István Kovácsházi, András Palerdi, Barnabás Hegyi, Dániel Vadász, Éva Bátori, Szilvia Rálik, Eszter Sümegi

Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra concert – 30 May 2016, Opera House
Dvořák: Otello Overture
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy – Overture
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – incidental music
Conductor: Arthur Fagen

Bryn Terfel Recital – 2 June 2016, Opera House
Conductor: Gareth Jones
Featuring: Bryn Terfel

Source: http://www.opera.hu/