State Opera House to reopen in September

While there will be fewer performances than usual, the Opera promises its programʼs diversity will match that of previous years.

In a season inspired by Wagner’s Ring Cycle, there will be 28 opera and ballet premières, along with countless repertoire pieces, musicals, grand operettas, concerts, concert-format productions, and family and children’s programs.

The Ring theme is not just about the Ring Cycle itself, but also covers both the precursors and those impacted by Wagner’s genius, organizers promise. Featured will be dramatic works – some staged, some in concert format – by Bach, Gluck, Weber, Beethoven, Schubert, Spontini, Lortzing, Marschner, Humperdinck, Wolf, Korngold and Richard Strauss: a sort of spiritual Valhalla of pan-Germanic culture, as the press release puts it. 

Premières include the new experience of Hindemith’s two works – Sancta Susanna and The Long Christmas Dinner – to be featured in the GermanLateNight program. Rossini’s comic opera L’italiana in Algeri, Bach’s secular cantatas and Offenbach’s Die Rheinnixen have likewise never been presented here. 

At any given time while the Opera House is being renovated, a portion of the company will be on the road. The Hungarian National Ballet will at last get to captivate the audience at Müpa Budapest, among other venues, with its contemporary dance works. The Béla Bartók National Concert Hall at Müpa will also host opera, with concert-format performances of three large-scale works: Verdiʼs Otello, Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss, and Pucciniʼs Turandot.