The French composer Charles Silver (1868–1949), largely unknown in Hungary, was six years younger than Debussy but outlived his great contemporary by 31 years. As a pupil at the Conservatoire de Paris, he attended classes given by Théodore Dubois and Jules Massenet. His most popular opera was drawn from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. The lyrical fairy tale (féerie lyrique) La Belle au bois dormant, based on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault, dates from 1895, yet Hungarian audiences will be encountering the work for the first time. The conductor György Vashegyi has already done a great deal to bring worthy gems of the French operatic repertoire to light. Under his baton, a cast consisting largely of native French-speaking singers, namely Guylaine Girard, Clémence Tilquin, Kate Aldrich, Andrew Haji, Thomas Dolié and Matthieu Lécroart, will take the stage at Müpa Budapest. Not only do these performers guarantee the authenticity of the production by performing in their own language, they are also naturally at ease with the style and genre.

French-language production with Hungarian surtitles.

The premiere takes place as a collaboration between Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Palazetto Bru Zane

Presented by: Hungarian National Philharmonic