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Initiated by Yehudi Menuhin, International Music Day has been celebrated since 1975. To honour this red-letter occasion, we are holding an open day on which the Opera’s freshly assembled Big Band will also entertain passers-by in front of the building on Andrássy út with interpretations of popular operatic arias played exclusively by our brass players in special arrangements by composer Attila Pacsay. An unusual feature of the Opera’s brass ensemble is that horns replace saxophones. The leader of the Opera Big B(r)and is trumpeter Tibor Király.

1 October 2014 6 pm, Opera House, Sphinx Terrace

In 2011, a team from the Opera took part for the first time in Budapest’s biggest marathon. In the years since, the number of those taking part has progressively increased, and impressive results have also been achieved: not only has the Opera managed to muster the most teams of all the city’s theatres, its runners have also produced the best times. Doubtless contributing to this success are the efforts of the Chorus of the Hungarian State Opera, which eases the passage along the section of road along Andrássy Avenue easier by regaling runners from in front of the main entrance with choral pieces, at the same time providing entertainment for marathon fans.

12 October 2014 from 10 am, Andrássy Avenue

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Artists Unmasked

Armel

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Every year, the Armel Opera Competition seeks out the best opera singers for leading pairs of roles in opera productions in five different countries. Auditions are held at several locations worldwide. The public then gets the chance to enjoy the completed productions in the five countries’ partner opera houses under the aegis of the Armel Opera Festival. At the gala event to close the festival, prizes for Best Female Performer, Best Male Performer and Best Production are awarded based on the decision of an international jury of leading experts. The Erkel Theatre now makes its debut as a festival venue, hosting the three largest-scale productions. Director of the Armel Opera Competition and Festival is Ágnes Havas.

12 October 2014, 7 pm Jaroslav Krček: The Emperor’s New Clothes / Gábor Kerek: Parody (production of the J. K. Tyl Theatre, Plzeň, Czech Republic)

14 October 2014, 7 pm Sir Harrison Birtwistle: Punch and Judy

(production of the Neue Oper Wien, Vienna, Austria)

16 October 2014, 7 pm Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mitridate, re di Ponto

(production of the Tbilisi State Academic Opera, Tbilisi, Georgia)

Éva Bátori’s informal talk show series continues in the Bertalan Székely Hall on the third Saturday of every month from October to May and features opera singers who are also active in other areas of the arts. One of the Opera’s outstanding solo singers continues the conversations interrupted at the end of last season with, among others, Lívia Budai and Katalin Kasza, and starts new ones with guests including Maria Teresa Uribe, Ildikó Iván and Kossuth Prize-winning sculptor György Jovanovics.

For the new season, we are also inviting representatives of other disciplines of the arts for conversations: players of instruments who are also visual artists, or visual artists who also play music, or who are enthusiastic followers of opera, ballet or classical music. At the end of the programme of music and conversation, an informal chat will continue over a coffee and the invited artist’s favourite cake.

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Change of Fortune

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Celebrating its 65th birthday, women’s magazine Nők Lapja has partnered with Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) to give families in need without a permanent place to live a new start. The initiative offers an opportunity to families with several children currently living in temporary accommodation run by HIA to find a home of their own, as long they are willing to do everything they can to turn their fate around. Through the Erkel Theatre, the Opera is joining the year-round collection of donations, so that anyone attending the charity performance of János vitéz can now take part in the fundraising campaign. Information on how to purchase tickets will be published in Nők Lapja from September 2014.

For more details on the fundraising campaign www.segelyszervezet.hu/esely

Partners  Sanoma – Nők Lapja, Hungarian Interchurch Aid

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One of the great figures of a legendary generation of Hungarian conductors was born 100 years ago this year. Ferenc Fricsay was on the one hand the son of Richárd Fricsay, chief military orchestra conductor of the Horthy era, but on the other, also helped conceal Jewish members of the Szeged orchestra where he was working: there is no further need to explain why he himself was forced into hiding during the siege of Budapest and why his career was again stifled in 1948. Even so, on the back of a sensational performance in Salzburg – where he stood in for Otto Klemperer – he built an international career within a few years. Had cancer not claimed him, the post of principal conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic was awaiting him from 1963.

A decade of full activity for Fricsay saw him make 200 recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, open at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Cuvilliés Theatre in Munich, feature in the first opera broadcast on German television and the world’s first film documenting an orchestral rehearsal, conduct the world premieres of three contemporary operas in Salzburg, and play his part in the discovery of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. He moulded the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra into his own ensemble and, wherever he travelled and with whomever he performed concerts, always took care to ensure Hungarian works or soloists appeared on the programme. The conspiracy to silence this maestro was complete under the Rákosi and Kádár regimes, but we have remained in Fricsay’s debt ever since.

The Opera has Fricsay to thank not only for the famed revival of Lucia di Lammermoor which made Mária Gyurkovics a household name, but also for the first performance in the dead of winter 1945, as the front retreated. Reiner, Ormandy, Szell, Solti, Ferencsik and Fricsay, it is only with this last name that the list of Hungarian conducting legends of the 20th century is complete.

26 October 2014, St. Stephen’s Basilica – Fricsay: Mass in C major – Hungarian premiere (conductor: Ádám Medveczky) 27 October 2014, Erkel Theatre – Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (Lucia: Edita Gruberová)

28 October 2014, Opera House, Red Salon – “A self-contained secret” (Fricsay exhibition, curated by Márton Karczag) 29 October 2014, Opera House, Bertalan Székely Hall – Fricsay100 Memorial Album (with notes by Szilveszter Ókovács) 30 October 2014, Opera House, main staircase – Inauguration of Fricsay bust (gift from Marta Dobay-Fricsay)

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Ferenc Liszt lived through the construction of the Opera House and modelled for Zsigmond Stróbl – his statue is right there by the main entrance. Each year, we lay a wreath to the sound of resounding fanfares at this spot with representatives of the music academy that bears his name. Liszt not only conducted opera, but would also often rework beloved pieces of music from operatic literature in his piano pieces. Charity and public-spiritedness were key aspects of Liszt’s life and it is in this spirit that this piano concert is a joint production with the Őrzők Foundation. The official charity of the Tűzoltó Street Children’s Clinic will donate income from the event to improving treatment conditions for children suffering with tumours or leukaemia. The principal artist at the 2014 Piano Arias will be world-famous pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk.

Mozart  Rondo in D major Brahms  Paganini Variations Saint-Saëns / Liszt / Horowitz  Danse Wagner-Liszt  Isolde’s Liebestod

Liszt  Consolation No. 3 Liszt  Valse impromptu Liszt / Horowitz  Rákóczi March Liszt  Tarantella (Venezia e Napoli)

Piano Arias

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A reading park, ballet performance, behind-the-scenes tours, handicrafts, a Big B(r)and concert and much more besides. A lively and action-packed programme of events awaits the entire family on this national holiday. This event regularly attracts thousands of visitors, with lines stretching from the atrium to the artists’ entrance.

It is a special pleasure, and one afforded to anyone, to visit Miklós Ybl’s masterpiece in this anniversary year, 200 years after the master’s birth and 130 after the building’s inauguration. All events are free of charge to attend with a registration ticket collected from the Opera House box offices.

23 October 2014 10 am – 4 pm, Opera House