Lohengrin, Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde, Tannhäuser, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and, of course, The Ring of the Nibelung: almost the full set of Wagner operas has now been performed at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall under the aegis of the Wagner in Budapest Festival and directed by Kossuth Prize-winning conductor Ádám Fischer. The 10th festival presents the audience with another new opera, a masterpiece that has enjoyed huge success since its première in 1843. It tells the story of the Dutchman who has roamed the seas since time immemorial, who can only escape his eternal curse if a woman swears to love him till death.
This great Romantic opera, based on a passage in a novel by Heinrich Heine and completed when Wagner was aged 30, can be seen here in an unusual reading directed by Balázs Kovalik, in what promises to be an exciting production full of twists and turns. It is the first staging of Wagner's work by head of department at the Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich. The title role will be played by James Rutherford, already familiar to us as Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger in 2013, who - despite his young age - is already much sought-after for roles in German Romantic operas. He has performed twice at the Bayreuth Festival, and has been contracted to appear at the Vienna State Opera, Hamburg Opera and Cologne Opera, as well as at the Glyndebourne Festival.
The part of the Norwegian sea captain Daland is sung by British bass Peter Rose, who we may know from Müpa's live broadcasts from the Met. He has worked with some of the greatest names in conducting - Giulini, Rattle, C. Kleiber, Maazel, Barenboim, Boulez, Mehta, Solti and Masur - and the world's leading orchestras (the Cleveland, London and Chicago symphonics, and the New York, Vienna and Berlin philharmonics).

Presented by: Müpa Budapest