The tradition celebrating the Christmas holidays with unusual styles of music at the Opera House is beginning to take root.

The Anglo-Saxon programme of 2012 was followed by Latin rhythms in 2013, and, for Christmas 2014, we staged a selection of American musical works. Now we will be performing an opus, composed by a German composer in London, that is close to everyone’s heart: as we are an opera house, this vocal work promises an unforgettable advent evening for all the family.

Conductor Paul Goodwin is renowned for his historically informed interpretations of music of all periods, his wide repertoire and his interest in contemporary music. He has a great passion for incorporating period style within the traditional orchestral world and creating idiosyncratic and dynamic programs.

Besides Hungarian soloists Gabriella Balga (mezzo-soprano), Tibor Szappanos (tenor) andIstván Kovács (bass), the soprano solos are sung by the Swedish Malin Christensson. Featuring the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra (the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra) and the Hungarian State Opera Choir (chorus master: Kálmán Strausz).

On 22 December, 2015, the Opera commemorates the 125th anniversary of the birth of an incredibly talented Italian conductor, Sergio Failoni, who was equally at home in Italian music and the works of Wagner, at the Erkel Theatre.

Sergio Failoni's indelible virtues are behind the Budapest Opera’s extraordinary high quality in the period between the two world wars. He started his work at the Opera in 1928 and continued on through the next two decades. We remember the sadly short-lived Sergio Failoni, an Italian conductor in the mould of Toscanini, with a concert recital featuring guest soloist Francesco Demuro along leading Hungarian singers. The conductor of the night is Giacomo Sagripanti.

Failoni125 concert recital - 22 December, 2015, 7:30 p.m., Erkel Theatre

Featuring: Francesco Demuro, Beatrix Fodor, Klára Kolonits, Judit Németh, István Kovácsházi, Csaba Szegedi

Conductor: Giacomo Sagripanti

Programme:

Leoncavallo: Pagliacci – Prologue (Csaba Szegedi)
Puccini: La bohème – Rodolfo's aria from act I (Francesco Demuro)
Respighi: La fiamma – No, Monica, lascida (Klára Kolonits)
Massenet: Thaïs – Meditation
Gounod: Roméo et Juliette – Roméo's cavatina (Francesco Demuro)
Mozart: Don Giovanni ˜– Donna Anna's aria from act II (Beatrix Fodor)
Donizetti: Anna Bolena – Finale (Klára Kolonits)

Wagner: Tannhäuser – Dich, teure Halle (Beatrix Fodor)
Wagner: Die Walküre – Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond (István Kovácsházi)
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier – The Italian tenor's aria (Francesco Demuro)
Verdi: Traviata – Prelude
Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur – Acerba voluttà, dolce tortura (Judit Németh)
Verdi: Don Carlo – Dio che nell'alma infondere (István Kovácsházi, Csaba Szegedi)
Verdi: Rigoletto – Quartet (Klára Kolonits, Judit Németh, Francesco Demuro, Csaba Szegedi)
Kodály: Háry János – Intermezzo
Kodály: Székely fonó (The Spinning Room) – Finale (Beatrix Fodor, Judit Németh, István Kovácsházi, Csaba Szegedi)

Erkel Theater
Address: 1087 Budapest, II. János Pál pápa tér 30.
Telephone: +36 1 81 47 100

Source: opera.hu