Hungarian State Opera makes its debut in Dubai City
Opera and ballet performances from September 8-13, 2023
The Hungarian State Opera will perform as a guest at the Dubai Opera House in Dubai City from September 8-13, 2023, with the Swan Lake and Madama Butterfly productions.
The seven-performance tour, involving 244 artists and employees of the Hungarian State Opera, is the most extensive presentation of the institution’s decade-long presence in the Middle East.
It is also, at the same time, the second largest-ever guest performance of Hungarian performing arts after the Opera’s 2018 performance in New York.
12-day Dubai tour
The 12-day Dubai project, with a total cost of half a billion HUF, is entirely covered by Dubai Opera.
Between September 8-10, the Hungarian National Ballet presents Tchaikovsky’s classical ballet Swan Lake with the choreography of Rudi van Dantzig and Toer van Schayk five times at the Dubai Opera.
Tatiana Melnik and Maria Yakovleva perform the primary roles of the performance as Odette/Odile, Dmitry Timofeev, Louis Scrivener as Siegfried, and Mikalai Radziush and Iurii Kekalo as Rothbart.
The Hungarian National Ballet Institute students will also participate in the performance.
Debutant Gábor Hontvári conducts the Orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera.
Madama Butterfly
Subsequently, on September 12 and 13, Puccini’s Opera Madama Butterfly which was presented in the 2000 production by Gábor Miklós Kerényi, with the leading roles performed by Gabriella Létay Kiss and Kriszta Kinga as Cio-Co San, Boldizsár László as Pinkerton, Erika Gál as Suzuki, and Zsolt Haja as Sharpless.
János Kovács conducts the Opera Orchestra and Chorus.
The Opera production has travelled to Dubai, UAE, with 244 people, including nine vocal soloists, two conductors, a 66-piece orchestra, 23 chorus members, 69 ballet dancers, ten ballet students, 14 extras, and 24 stage technical and background staff.
The guest performance in Dubai is the most significant appearance of the Hungarian State Opera’s nearly decade-long presence in the Middle East.
In 2012, the Opera production, in partnership with Müpa Budapest, presented Mozart’s Opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Royal Opera House of Oman in Muscat and took part with its artists in the performance of Verdi’s Aida in Qatar.
In 2018, also in Oman, the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra accompanied Juan Diego Flórez’s concert.
In 2017, the Opera Orchestra accompanied Andrea Bocelli in an exceptional performance among the Roman-era ruins of Jerash, Jordan, while in 2019, the ensemble made a guest appearance with Goldmark’s Opera Die Königin von Saba in Tel Aviv at the Israel Opera House.
Most recently, at the beginning of 2020, the Opera Orchestra accompanied a production of Giselle by La Scala Theatre Company, Milan, at the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Cultural Center in Kuwait City.
2024 global tours
In 2024, the Hungarian State Opera will appear in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other Asian destinations, including India and Japan.
Located near the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, the Dubai Opera has hosted various prose and musical theatre genres, concerts, exhibitions, and conferences since its opening in 2016.
The 2,000-seat theatre of the building, designed by Janus Roston and the Atkins Architecture, was opened with a performance by Plácido Domingo.
This season, among others, the Dubai Opera serves as the venue for the performance of the St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet.
Last Updated on 8 months by Arnold Pinto
