New Year’s at the Erkel

Events

A New Year’s invocation at the Erkel Theatre: with a newly commissioned work by the devout poet János Dénes Orbán, which inspired painter György Verebes’s likewise newly commissioned picture and a choreography created by Edit Rujsz to the introductory segment – music depicting the primeval chaos – of Joseph Haydn’s Die Schöpfung (“The Creation”), one of the most beautiful of Christian creative works. The company of the Hungarian State Opera will also salute its audience with a New Year’s greeting from theologian and university professor Szabolcs Nagypál, representing the scholarly world, as well as a performance of the piece Three Parts to the Dance! by composer Zoltán Kovács, who also plays bassoon in the Opera’s orchestra. Subtitled In memoriam Ferenc Erkel, the work attempts to revive the verbunkos style, an important component of Erkel’s musical language. Concluding the concert will be Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a universal treasure and message, and a new year is a superb occasion for the hopeful and upbeat sound of this piece whose Hungarian premiere was conducted by Ferenc Erkel, the Opera’s first chief music director.

Programme:

New Year’s greeting from theologian Szabolcs Nagypál

Rujsz / Haydn: Die Schöpfung (“The Creation”)
János Dénes Orbán: Rebirth – poem recited by: Balázs Csémy
Revealing György Verebes’s painting Rebirth
Zoltán Kovács: Three Parts to the Dance! – In memoriam Erkel Ferenc
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125

Soprano » Klára Kolonits
Alto » Lúcia Megyesi Schwartz
Tenor » István Horváth
Bass » Kolos Kováts

Featuring the Hungarian National Ballet and the Hungarian State Opera Chorus.
Chorus director: Gábor Csiki

Ballet dancers featuring in the short film Die Schöpfung (“The Creation”): Carulla Leon Jessica, Leblanc Gergely, Felméry Lili, Balázsi Gergő Ármin, Pokhodnykh Ellina and Timofeev Dmitry.

Conductor » György Vashegyi

Hostess of the evening » Melitta Gyüdi
Director » András Aczél