Performer: Mari Benedek

Balázs Kovalik’s interpretation of Elektra is revived in Budapest, impressing until the B-movie cliché finale. 

Balázs Kovalik’s opulent staging of Boito's Faustian opera threatens to overshadow the singers, but it makes for an exciting spectacle.

The battle of the choirs is a thrilling moment in just about any performance of Dutchman, but produces shock and awe in the live acoustics of Budapest's Bartok Bela Concert Hall.

In 2015, The Flying Dutchman is on the roster at the Wagner in Budapest festival. A fine cast and an inventive orchestra under the baton of Adam Fischer are matched with a debatable staging by Balázs Kovalik

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.

Any director taking on Weber’s Der Freischütz faces big challenges. Sándor Zsóter’s production for the Hungarian State Opera takes risks, with very mixed results.