Featuring: Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: János Kovács In 2009, the Palace of Arts will welcome a succession of internationally renowned divas. The first will be the Hungarian soprano Andrea Rost who has been performing at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall since its inception. With her remarkably vocal qualities, she joined the Vienna Staatsoper just two years after graduating. Two years later, she made her debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera. Her Argentinean partner, with whom she is singing works by Giacomo Puccini this evening, made his debut at the Met in 1998, playing Alfredo in a production of Traviata directed by Franco Zeffirelli and conducted by James Levine. Marcelo Álvarez is now ranked alongside Ramón Vargas, Juan Diego Flórez and José Cura as one of the leading Latin American tenors of our era. Since 1998 he has performed twenty-one new roles and is regularly to be seen in the premiere opera houses and festivals. In 2006, he starred as Cavaradossi at the London Covent Garden’s production of Tosca. He was partnered there by Angela Gheorghiu and Bryn Terfel but he has also sung with Renée Fleming and Edita Gruberova. He has also recorded works by the tango king Carlos Gardel and made an album of duets with Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra.

Presented by: