The mammoth dramatic work that unfolds in The Ring of the Nibelung starts in the cold depths of the Rhine, where the Rhinemaidens who guard the river's gold mock the hopeless advances of Alberich the Nibelung. Consumed by bitterness, the pitifully ugly creature becomes easy prey to the hunger to rule the world... in his longing, he curses love and robs the Rhine of its treasure.
Among his many distinctions, the young baritone James Rutherford won the Seattle Opera's International Wagner Competition in 2006. He is a regular fixture in the world's most prestigious opera houses and concert halls.
Zsolt Haja is a pillar of local opera performance in his home town of Debrecen. His career started after winning the 2006 József Simándy Singing Competition in Szeged and the Ferruccio Tagliavini International Singing Competition, as well as the special prize at Vienna's Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition. At Müpa Budapest, he also sang in the Richard Strauss opera Capriccio, conducted by Zoltán Kocsis.
Christian Franz is one of the most sought-after Wagnerian singers of our time and the creator of a great number of title roles in large-scale productions. 'What he knows about the emotional nuance of singing is equivalent to the vocal technique of great actors,” wrote one critic after his portrayal of Tristan at the 2010 Budapest Wagner Days. He made his début singing the music of Wagner at Bayreuth, one of its citadels, in 2001. In 2009, he also won over the audience at New York's Metropolitan Opera.
Péter Kálmán is one of Hungary's internationally renowned opera singers. He spent a number of years with the Zürich Opera's world-famous company, and appeared at both the Salzburg Easter Festival and the summer Salzburg Festival. He has worked with such renowned conductors as Valery Gergiev, Marc Minkowski, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Franz Welser-Möst. Recommended to join a recording cast by Cecilia Bartoli, he thus also partnered with Juan Diego Flórez and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo.
Gerhard Siegel regularly takes the stage for the four evenings of The Ring of the Nibelung tetralogy - as Siegmund, Siegfried and Loge - with his portrayals of Mime in Das Rheingold and Siegfried standing out among them. He has debuted as Mime, the dispossessed brother of Alberich, the dwarf bent on world domination, at New York's Metropolitan Opera, the Bayreuth Festival, in Cologne, London's Covent Garden, as well as in Tokyo.
Walter Fink is a member of the Wiener Staatsoper and has been the bearer of the prestigious title of Kammersänger since 2001. The unique richness of his career spanning more than three decades is shown by the fact that he has played some 70 roles at the renowned opera house, including taking the stage in numerous Wagnerian operas.
Atala Schöck, as one of the busiest Hungarian sopranos, featured at the Bayreuth Festival four years in a row, in a production of Parsifal conducted by both Pierre Boulez and Adam Fischer. She has appeared at Dresden's Semperoper, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Theater an der Wien and the Bastille Opera in Paris, among other venues. She first appeared at the Budapest Wagner Days in 2006.
Tünde Szabóki first pursued her studies in Budapest, and later in Graz. Between 1994 and 2000, she won prizes at a host of international singing competitions. She has sung the role of Agathe in Weber's Der Freischütz 20 times in Graz and Prague, and is a regular guest at the Styriarte Festival, which is closely linked to Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In 1997, she appeared as a soloist at Jerusalem's Bernstein Festival and was a guest at the Musik-Biennale and the Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals in 2001. She is a regular fixture at the Budapest Wagner Days.
Bernadett Fodor is one of the outstanding talents among the young generation of Hungarian opera singers and has performed Wagnerian roles on numerous occasions. She took the stage at the Frankfurt Opera House as a Valkyrie, and dazzled the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with her vocal skills as a Rhinemaiden. She appeared at the Budapest Wagner Days for the first time in 2015.

More information about the Budapest Wagner Days here.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest