The Hungarian State Opera and the Hungarian National Ballet will embark on a 12-night tour in Taiwan, performing in Taipei and Kaohsiung from 2 to 6 April 2025. In Madama Butterfly, the title role will be sung by Eszter Sümegi, Kinga Kriszta, and Gabriella Létay Kiss, alongside Gergely Boncsér and Adorján Pataki as their partners. In Swan Lake, the lead roles will be performed by Tatyjana Melnyik, Maria Yakovleva, and Soobin Lee, alongside Dmitry Timofeev, Louis Scrivener, and Boris Zhurilov.
Following an inquiry from an American agency, the Hungarian State Opera is preparing for the most ambitious Taiwanese tour in its history after 30 years. This will be the first time the company presents an opera performance in Taiwan. As part of the guest tour, the Opera House will stage Miklós Gábor Kerényi’s 2000 production of Madama Butterfly, while the ballet company will perform Rudi van Dantzig and Toer van Schayk’s Swan Lake, a choreography that has been part of its repertoire since 2015. Each production will be performed six times.
The performances will take place at two major venues: the National Theater in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan with a population of 2.6 million, which accommodates over 1,500 spectators, and the Weiwuying - National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, located in Kaohsiung, the country’s southern economic and cultural hub with 2.7 million residents. Opened in 2018, this architecturally acclaimed complex is Taiwan’s largest cultural institution and, by some estimates, the world’s largest arts center, with its opera house offering more than 2,200 seats. The opera and ballet ensembles will perform simultaneously at both venues, alternating between them. On April 2 and 3, Madama Butterfly will be staged in Kaohsiung, while Swan Lake will be performed in Taipei. The productions will then switch locations on April 5 and 6, with Madama Butterfly moving to Taipei and Swan Lake to Kaohsiung.
The Hungarian State Opera will travel to Taiwan with nearly 180 people, including 12 opera soloists, 9 ballet soloists, 23 choir members, 60 ballet dancers, 10 ballet students, a 40-member technical team, as well as administrative staff, ballet masters, accompanists, and the leadership.
In Madama Butterfly, the title role will be performed by Eszter Sümegi, Kinga Kriszta, and Gabriella Létay Kiss in rotation, alongside Adorján Pataki and Gergely Boncsér (Pinkerton), Károly Szemerédy (Sharpless), Mária Farkasréti and Lusine Sahakyan (Suzuki), Péter Balczó (Goro), András Kiss (Bonzo), Barna Bartos (Yamadori), and Zsuzsanna Kapi (Kate). In Swan Lake, the leading roles will also be performed by three alternating casts: Tatyjana Melnyik, Maria Yakovleva, and Soobin Lee (Odette/Odile); Dmitry Timofeev, Louis Scrivener, and Boris Zhurilov (Siegfried); and Mikalai Radziush, Takaaki Okajima, and Vladislav Melnyik (Rothbart). The opera performances will be conducted by István Dénes, with distinguished local orchestras, the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra (KSO) and the Taipei Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, providing the musical accompaniment. Meanwhile, the ballet performances will be accompanied by a recorded orchestral track by the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, conducted by Gábor Hontvári.
The Hungarian State Opera first performed in Taiwan in 1991, when a dozen ballet dancers took part in a six-city tour featuring László Seregi’s Variations on a Children's Song, along with classical and modern pas de deux pieces. This was followed by a 1995 guest performance in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where Seregi’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was presented for three nights in Taipei.
Photo by Yi-Hsien Lee Photography
