Müpa Budapest's new series, MusicOnStage, is an initiation into the genres of musical theatre - in four instalments progressing chronologically from early tribal rituals all the way to American musicals, it will develop the audience's familiarity with this tremendous legacy of intellectual history. The series is being edited by an outstanding expert on the subject: György Selmeczi, who used as his starting point the idea that musical theatre is the symbiosis of many branches of the arts, s...ince it is the unity of text, melody, rhythm, movement and visual spectacle that constructs the image that the audience then "takes home with them” to fully process, ideally as a catharsis. The performers are the talented students of the musical actor course at the University of Theatre and Film Arts, who will themselves portray and sing the chorus of 12th century monks, as well as the protagonists of Romantic operas and roles from Broadway musicals.
When a child performs in a Mother's Day pageant at the kindergarten, that is musical theatre. When the chief of a tribe, surrounded by a circle of dancing warriors, cries out to the heavens for rain or fertility, this, too, is musical theatre. So is the moonstruck song of the sad clown Pierrot. And Plácido Domingo is also performing musical theatre when he dons the costume of Radamès or Lohengrin. Puppets, too, frequently burst into song. In the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King, sometimes there would be several hundred of them at once dancing, singing and posing under the baton of Maestro Lully: musical theatre!
In the first part of our series, we will first examine the original forms of musical theatre, since the essential elements of the ritual, the ceremony, are always theatrical in nature. Afterwards, we will explore how Europeans, as they gained self-awareness, created a unity of music, poetry, dance and spectacle, and how this is guided by the greatest mover of the spirit and the emotions: acting and performing. This thrilling tale of musical theatre starts in pre-history and ends in the period of Renaissance arts. But it will continue from there!
Age: 14-18 year
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.
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.