Wednesday 24 February 2016

The Hungarian National Ballet's Sleeping Beauty

Budapest Opera House
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On 17 April 2016 the Hungarian National Ballet will present Sir Peter Wright's production of The Sleeping Beauty at the Budapest Opera House. As patron of the London Ballet Circle, Sir Peter has invited members of the Circle to attend the opening night.

According to Wikipedia the company was established in 1884 with the opening of the Budapest Opera House which seems to be a magnificent auditorium.  The theatre has an excellent internet radio station called Operadio Budapest to which I am listening right now.

I regret to say that I do not yet know much about the company. The only dancer I know is Ryosuke Morimoto who has recently joined the corps de ballet. The reason I know him is that he was a member of the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company last year. I included him in my feature on the Junior Company (see Meet Ryosuke Morimoto of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company 3 Dec  2014). I had the pleasure of meeting him briefly at a reception that followed the Junior Company's performance at the Stadsshouwburg on the 6 Feb 2015 and found him to be a very personable young man as well as a fine dancer. I am delighted that he has landed a job with the Hungarian National Ballet.

The company's artistic director and ballet master appears to be Tamás Solymosi The Étoile of the 2015-2016 season is Lili Felméry. a soloist with the company. That lady seems to have studied at a lot of ballet schools including the Royal Ballet School between 2008 and 2009. Her latest role is  in Manon. There are four women principals in the company (Alexandra KozmérTatiana Melnik,  Aleszja Popova and Aliya Tanykpayeva) and five men (Máté Bakó, József CsertaGergely Leblanc, Zoltán Oláh and Dmitry Timofeev). 

In staging the Sleeping Beauty Sir Peter has been assisted by Dennis Bonner  and Miyako Yoshida from the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Sets and costumes have been designed by Philip Prowse. The cast has not been announced but the orchestra will be conducted by István Dénes.

Members of the Circle who want to attend are expected to make their own way to Budapest. Tickets for the show can be booked online. The top price is 25,000 florints (about £62.50 at current rates of exchange) and there are plenty of cheaper seats. The low cost airline Wizzair flies several times a day from Luton. Yhe K & K Opera Hotel which is a few yards from the opera house charges £190 for a 2 night stay, 

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