Beautiful voices, magical melodies and a plot full of twists and turns and exciting endings: this is the world of the bel canto operas that flourished early in the 19th century. The three greatest composers involved in creating that repertoire were Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. Rossini is primarily appreciated for his comic operas, while the other two created many masterpieces of opera seria, the genre that developed as the descendant of serious opera, which included a number of pieces about historical subjects. The rare treat the Müpa Budapest audience will be hearing performed by a cast of international stars on this evening is one of these: Lucrezia Borgia.
On the topic of operas inspired by the dramas of Victor Hugo, Verdi's Rigoletto and Ernani are most frequently mentioned. It was the great French poet and writer's 1833 play Lucrèce Borgia, though, that Donizetti, a great figure of the bel canto era, used as a basis for writing his opera Lucrezia Borgia, which received its première in the same year that Hugo's drama itself was first staged. Brimming with secrets and surprises, the plot evolves over the course of a prologue and two acts. Th...e title role on the evening of the première will be sung as a stand-in by the young Russian soprano Lidia Fridman, who recently demonstrated to great acclaim at the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo just how at home she is in the world of bel canto. For the second performance, we can marvel at the artistry of the Spanish Yolanda Auyanet, who has already interpreted the roles of many of the great opera heroines in Europe's most distinguished opera houses. Taking the stage in the role of the young Venetian nobleman Gennaro will be the Romanian tenor Stefan Pop, an authentic bel canto specialist who won Plácido Domingo's 2010 Operalia competition. They will be joined in the main roles by the internationally acclaimed Hungarian bass Gábor Bretz and the Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Molinari. On the conductor's podium, we will have a familiar guest at Müpa Budapest in the form of a specialist in bel canto opera who regularly accompanies Edita Gruberova: Andriy Yurkevych.
Balázs Papp won the Müpa Budapest Special Prize at the 11th József Simándy International Singing Competition.
The performance is a cooproduction of Müpa Budapest, Pannon Philharmonic and Zsolnay Heritage Managment Ltd.
Presented by: Müpa Budapest
Parking information
We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
Refreshments – Without the Queue
Thanks to our new catering service at the Átrium Snack Bar, you can forget about waiting in line during intermissions for some refreshments and get your order prepped especially for you by the time the intermission actually starts. Find out more about pre-ordering here.
Safe ticket purchase
Dear Visitors, please note that only tickets purchased from the Müpa website and official ticket offices are guaranteed to be valid. To avoid possible inconvenience, we suggest buying tickets to our performances and concerts via the mupa.hu website, the Interticket national network (jegy.hu) or at our official ticket offices.
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