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Enjoy quality premieres in premium quality from the Hungarian State Opera

The Hungarian State Opera’s new streaming service provides quality Saturday-night theatrical entertainment for all the family, with opera, ballet and concerts available for audiences at home

Until we’re able to return to theatres and concert halls, the Hungarian State Opera has the answer: a new paid streaming service reaching out to audiences at home with a series of weekly Saturday-night operas, concerts and ballets. The programme will be a mix of brand-new productions which were due to take place in person and recordings of popular recent performances.

The Budapest Opera is not only home to the leading Hungarian State Opera – it also stages performances from the Hungarian National Ballet, a company renowned for its trailblazing work in both classical and modern dance. As well as a raft of operas and ballets scheduled to watch on the streaming platform, you’ll also find a further selection of gala concerts from the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra and aria recitals from the company’s internationally renowned soloists.

This season at the Hungarian State Opera is dedicated to ‘The Muse of France’, with a focus on French culture. Viewers have already had the chance to see a production of Die Rheinnixen, a rare opera by Offenbach, and ballets such as Flowers of Paris, based on the French Revolution, and Don Juan, the story of the legendary fictional libertine’s descent into hell, set to the music of Gluck.

The performances are recorded at the various venues of the Hungarian State Opera, with grand productions taking place at the Erkel Theatre and the Eiffel Art Studios, the brand-new state-of-the-art complex. The Eiffel Art Studios’ Bánffy Stage was designed for smaller, more dedicated audiences, showcasing experimental performances, modern choreographies, Baroque operas and song recitals.

Read on to find out more about the brilliant programmes on offer in the coming months…

Concerts

The Hungarian State Opera Orchestra presents a gala concert in tribute to Miklós Ybl, the architect behind the magnificent Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest. Expect music by Dohnányi and Debussy, among others. Join coloratura soprano Klára Kolonits in an aria recital of bel canto favourites.

Opera

Enjoy the Hungarian State Opera in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, starring internationally renowned contralto Lívia Budai. There are more exciting productions still to come, including Figaro3, the amalgamation of three operas based on the Figaro Trilogy by Beaumarchais: Rossini’s Il barbere di Siviglia, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Milhaud’s La mére coupable.

Ballet

Witness the strange love between a pirate captain and a slave girl in Le Corsaire, a choreography that was revised and tailor-made for the dancers of the Hungarian National Ballet by renowned choreographer Anna-Marie Holmes and ballet director Tamás Solymosi.

There’s also the world premiere of choreographer Marianna Venekei’s Firebirds, a reworking of Stravinsky’s The Firebird, which will be paired with Piazzolla’s 5 Tangos, set to choreography by the leading Dutch ballet dancer Hans van Manen. A new staging of Lully’s ballet The bourgeois gentilhomme is also planned for June.