The Palace of Arts now organises the “Wagner in Budapest” Opera Festival for the fourth time. 2009 presents a summary of the previous years and in two and a half weeks; the musicians will again perform all the operas staged so far. Repeating the events of 2008, Der Ring des Niebelungen – probably uniquely in the world – will be performed on four consecutive days, in fact on two occasions as well as Parisfal. The resident orchestra remains the MR Symphonics and Ádám Fischer will conduct each per...formance. He made his debut conducting the Ring at the Bayreuth Festival in 2001. He conducted probably the greatest operatic cycle in music for the next three years on the Green Hill where he returned to conduct Parsifal in 2006 and 2007. In 2007 he received the highly prestigious Eichala chalice which the city of Bayreuth donates to artists who have enjoyed extended periods of success at the Festival. Magdolna Parditka and Alexandra Szemerédy have worked together on several projects in Salzburg and they were invited in 2006 by Ádám Fischer to stage the Parsifal in the very first “Wagner in Budapest” Opera Festival. Their work was enthusiastically praised by both professionals and audiences. Tomasz Konieczny sang Amfortas at the 2006 Wagner-days, and Wotan in Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) in 2007. In 2009 he sings both parts. After graduating as an actor in Łodz, he studied singing in Warsaw and Dresden. He made his debut as a singer in Poznań, and as member of the Leipzig, Lübeck and Mannheim opera troupes he also sang Wagnerian heroes. Since 2006 he has been a soloist at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where he sang Wotan, Kurwenal and Amfortas. In 2008 he made his debut as Alberich at the Dresden Semperoper as well as the Vienna Staatsoper, where he sings in Götterdammerung (Twilight of the Gods) and in Das Rheingold (Rhine Gold) in the current season. In 2009 he sings all three Alberich roles at the Vienna Staatsoper and he will perform again Alberich at the Berlini Deutsche Oper in 2010. Eric F. Halfvarson has for the last twenty years been one of the mostly sought-after interpreters of Hagen, with a truly tremendous voice. He sang the role at Bayreuth between 1994 and 1998, but also performed it in the Barcelona Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Madrid Teatro Real, the New York Metropolitan, the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Vienna Staatsoper. At the Wagner-days he performs Gurnemanz in Parsifal. Graz-born Nikolai Schukoff has been a great discovery of recent years. He graduated from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and began his singing career as a lyric tenor in opera houses of Germany, France and Britain. On the advice of Christoph Eschenbach he turned to Wagnerian roles. He enjoyed great success as Siegfried in Götterdammerung in Paris, brilliantly performed Siegmund in Die Walküre in Berlin, and topped all this with singing Parsifal at the Munich Staatsoper in 2007. Besides Budapest, he has been invited to sing this role in Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Paris and Valencia. Oskar Hillebrandt primarily performs Wagnerian roles around the world. Among others he has sung Hans Sachs (Hamburg, Berlin), the title role of the Flying Dutchman (Hamburg, Vienna, Berlin), Telramund in Lohengrin (Hamburg, Berlin, Milan La Scala, Vienna, Moscow, Bayreuth, Tokyo), Alberich (Munich, Berlin, USA, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Wellington) and Kurwenal (Berlin, Seattle). Last year he took on the role of Gunther in Götterdammerung as a last-minute replacement at the Wagner-days, added by Donner in Das Rheingold this year. Judit Németh is a soloist of the Hungarian Opera House and has been a successful regular singer at the Wagner-days in Budapest since the beginning of the festival. She has sung at the La Scala Milan and has performed in Bayreuth since 2000, where she saved the last performances of the Parsifal in 2007, by singing the role of Kundry as a last-minute replacement. She sings Kundry again in Budapest, while gives her account of Fricka in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre.
Parking information
We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
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