Performer: Erika Markovics

Iréne Théorin singt eine fesselnden Opferszene, während Ádám Fischer den Budapester Ring des Nibelungen mit makelloser Orchesterleistung abschließt.

This double cast, nine-day revival of Vadim Milkov's staging of Pique Dame offers a relatively straight reading of Tchaikovsky's opera about the obsessive Pushkin-based character Herman. Embracing the opera's choral and dance passages, spectacle and pageantry are paramount; the drama's surreal and more nuanced dimensions could have been better profiled.

Although with a promising concept, the Hungarian State Opera’s new production ultimately proved underdirected.

Inadequate production and mixed performances characterize the Hungarian State Opera's new Trovatore.

Rarely performed, Boito’s Mefistofele is an audacious, spectacular opera, needing an audacious, spectacular staging to do it justice. That’s exactly what it gets in Balázs Kovalik’s production for Hungarian State Opera.