For the 5th installment of the series streamed live on 23 October 2020, Hungary's National Day, the ensembles of the Hungarian State Opera – the Chorus, the Orchestra and the Ballet – prepared a special festive programme for the viewers of the live stream starting at 8:00 p.m. on Facebook and Origo.hu.
In the first part of their programme, members of the Opera Chorus presented Village Scenes by Béla Bartók. Wedding, Lullaby and Lads' Dance were performed by Mónika Németh, Dorottya Győrffy, Tünde Sziklás and for the first time, pianist Krisztina Andrássy-Neuenstein made her debut as a singer. The piece accompanied on the piano by Katalin Szirtes was conducted by Gábor Csiki. Next, it was time for a world premiere once again. Phänomen by chorus master Gábor Csiki was composed for a competition on the 125th anniversary of Ferenc Liszt's death, in 2011, with lyrics by Friedrich Hölderlin. The piece was performed by Eszter Magyari, Evelin Máthé, Dániel Roska and Péter Balás accompanied on the piano by Krisztina Andrássy-Neuenstein and conducted by the composer.
A chamber string orchestra formed by artists of the Opera Orchestra performed Hungarian pieces or works inspired by Hungarian music. Movements 1, 5 and 6 from Johannes Brahms's popular Hungarian Dances, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Ferenc Liszt (orchestrated by Péter Wolf), and Allegro barbaro by Béla Bartók (orchestrated by István Dénes) were interpreted by Haruka Nagao, Alexandre Dimcevski, Manuéla Simon, Áron Dóczi (violin), Péter Kondor, Balázs Tóth (viola), Endre Balog, Péter Dóczi (cello) and Péter Boldoghy Kummert (double bass).
Artists of the Hungarian National Ballet aimed once again to show their talents in their wide-ranging repertoire. Ballet master Edit Rujsz's choreography to the Overture of Joseph Haydn's Die Schöpfung was created for a ballet film to welcome the year 2020 – now it was presented with soloists Lili Felméry and Iurii Kekalo. The programme featured excerpts from two ballets by Tchaikovsky: Tarantella from Swan Lake (choreography by Olga Chernakova and Dmitry Kirejko) was danced by Oliva Bobvos and Gergely Apor Molnár, students of the Hungarian National Ballet Institute, whereas Rose Adagio from Sleeping Beauty (choreography by Sir Peter Wrigth) was performed by Tatiana Melnik, Takaaki Okajima, Mikalai Radziush, Vladyslav Melnyk and Dávid Molnár. The closing number was a real treat by first ballet master Marianna Venekei. Her dance piece Check-Mate was created to one of the most popular excerpt from Faust by Gounod. Check was danced by Inés Furuhashi-Huber, Mate was danced by Dénes Darab.
The performance can be seen HERE.
Photo by Valter Berecz