Conductor
A young man ignorant of everything, including his own name, arrives at the Kingdom of the Holy Grail. Is he the ‘pure fool, enlightened by compassion’, who, it has been prophesied, will purify the realm? In his final music drama Parsifal, Wagner fashions the fear of the temptations and sinful desires into a tale of redemption. The score contrasts the sacred with the sensual, from the stark magnificence of the music for the procession to the Grail Hall in Act I to the richly orchestrated scene in which Kundry attempts to seduce Parsifal in Act II. There are sections of almost unearthly beauty such as the Act I Prologue and the closing scene of the opera, in which Parsifal reveals the Grail to the knights. OperaVision viewers discover András Almási-Tóth’s new production conducted by Balázs Kocsár live at its premiere on Good Friday at Hungarian State Opera.
Conductor
In the bloody shadow of the French Revolution's reign of terror, a poet and a revolutionary vie for the affections of a noblewoman. Can the guillotine be stopped as their friendship turns to rivalry? In Andrea Chénier, the poet’s fate transcends actual events, telling the story of a tragic love triangle in which the lives of the protagonists are subject to the forces of history, betrayal and amorous passion. Along the way, Umberto Giordano's music, full of elegant aristocratic dances and popular revolutionary songs, perfectly captures the atmosphere of Paris before and during the French Revolution. Winner of the 2016 International Opera Award for Young Director, Fabio Ceresa returns to the Erkel Theatre for this impressive period production.
