OPERA bérlet

Charles Silver, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vincenzo Bellini and Reynaldo Hahn – two immortal masterpieces of the musical stage alongside two exciting new discoveries: this is what the Hungarian National Philharmonic’s Opera subscription series has to offer in the 2026/2027 season. Don Giovanni was composed in 1787 and Norma in 1831, while the two French rarities – Charles Silver’s opera La Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty) and Reynaldo Hahn’s La Carmélite – were both performed for the first time in the same year, 1902. In the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall at Müpa Budapest – the regular venue for the Opera subscription series – both works will be heard as Hungarian premieres. The performance of the Hahn work is being presented as a co-production between the Hungarian National Philharmonic and Palazzetto Bru Zane. Each opera will be heard in its original language. The two Italian works (as Mozart’s Don Giovanni is thoroughly steeped in the idioms of the contemporary Italian operatic style) will each be conducted by a maestro from Italy: Mozart’s masterpiece will be led by Giancarlo Andretta, a success story throughout Europe, while Bellini’s Norma will be conducted by Riccardo Frizza, who has been highly esteemed by Hungarian audiences for years and is regarded as a specialist in Italian opera. The two French pieces will be performed under the direction of György Vashegyi, Hungary’s foremost authority on French operatic rarities. The four performances are elevated by an array of outstanding singers. By way of example, it is enough to mention Guylaine Girard (playing the title role in Sleeping Beauty), Alessandro Luongo (in the title role of Don Giovanni), Klára Kolonits (appearing as Norma), and, from the veritable star parade in the Hahn production of La Carmélite, the names of Michèle Losier, Aude Extrémo, Judith van Wanroij and Artavazd Sargsyan stand out.