-Decca-Classics,-Uli-Weber.jpeg-940x433q85.jpg)
Visit Müpa: Highlights from the Jewel in Budapest’s Cultural Crown
Visit Müpa: Highlights from the Jewel in Budapest’s Cultural Crown
- Stars of the classical and world music scenes take to the stage in the Müpa 2016/17 programme, with highlights including: Sir Antonio Pappano, Péter Eötvös with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Anoushka Shankar, Salif Keïta, Donny McCaslin Quartet and Cecilia Bartoli
- Praised by Classic FM and described by the New York Times as ‘heartwarming’, Müpa’s globally in-demand festival Wagner in Budapest(8 – 21 June 2017) returns with the exhilarating Ring of the Nibelung tetralogy and the Parsifal opera.
Majestic historical architecture, famous thermal baths and world-class performing arts spaces make it no wonder that Budapest is a must-visit cultural destination for travellers wanting more from a long weekend away. Fly from London in 2.5 hours for a weekend escape immersed in the finest classical culture anywhere on the planet and sample the best the Hungarian capital has to offer at Müpa Budapest.
Next season, Müpa holds a wide range of performances, continuing a rich Hungarian arts heritage and ensuring that Budapest remains a firm favourite on the travel bucket list. Renowned around the world for its acoustic brilliance, Müpa is a multi-venue performance space that hosts diverse events, from classical concerts and opera to avant-garde dance and cutting edge contemporary music. Here is just a taster of some of the upcoming season highlights to book now:
- Sir Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (27 September 2016) – Sir Antonio Pappano and Italy’s finest symphony orchestra will perform the elegant overture to Rossini’s La Cenerentola followed by a performance of Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3, which uses the majestic sound of the largest modern concert hall organ in continental Europe. The piece, dedicated to the memory of Franz Liszt, is famous for assigning roles to the piano and organ within the symphonic setting, which lends unusual colour to this rightly popular masterpiece.
- Péter Eötvös and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (24 November 2016) – Premiering his new work at Müpa, Péter Eötvös conducts his new contemporary oratorio set to a libretto written by Hungary’s most established writer Péter Esterházy and performed by the incomparable Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Based on the figure of a 10th century monk known as Notker the Stammerer, the work is a thoroughly modern take on society today and attempts to foresee events as they unfold.
- Salif Keïta (3 November 2016) – A rare chance to see the undisputed king of West African music. Keïta’s music brings traditional acoustic instruments to the fore, aspiring to preserve the memories of Malian music and playing with an unmistakable style that resonates with brilliance.
- Anoushka Shankar: Land of Gold (19 November 2016) – With a name synonymous with the sitar and classical and fusion Indian music. Anoushka Shankar pushes the boundaries of her instrument, crafting an unmistakably contemporary sound and working with new art forms.
- Donny McCaslin Quartet (4 November 2016) – Already a well-established name across the jazz world, the Donny McCaslin Quartet featured on the final album by David Bowie. With a distinctively fresh approach, the quartet delivers a fluid and contemporary jazz sound.
- Cecilia Bartoli: Handel’s Heroines (3 December 2016) – Multiple Grammy Award winning singer Cecilia Bartoli returns to the Müpa stage to explore the female characters of Handel’s historically themed opera with her phenomenal voice.
- Early Music Festival (19 February – March 2017) – World-renowned German soprano Simone Kermes (1 March) takes to the stage to perform a baroque concert around the theme of ‘tempest’. Further highlights of the Early Music Festival include countertenor Philippe Jaroussky performing Handel’s Arias’ (19 February) and a concert performance of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s rarely performed opera Naïs (4 March) by Hungary’s leading Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra will crown the festival.
- Wagner in Budapest 2017 (8 – 21 June 2017) – Praised by the critics of Classic FM and the New York Times, the universally celebrated festival is one of Müpa’s most sought-after annual events. Attended by Wagner fans across the globe, this season will once again welcome the Echo Prize-winning conductor Ádám Fischer to the helm as artistic director and conductor. This year Müpa will host the now world-famous production of the Ring of the Nibelung tetralogy, as well as the exhilarating opera Parsifal. A concert performance of Rienzi will open for the time at the festival. The outstanding performers include Anja Kampe, Daniel Brenna, Iréne Theorin, Rúni Brattaberg, Robert Dean Smith, Christian Franz, Gerhard Siegel and Walter Fink.
From groundbreaking jazz, pioneering world music and innovative contemporary dance, Müpa’s forthcoming programme has something for everyone. The performing arts space welcomes the superstar of the Lady Harmsworth Stradivarius, one of the world’s busiest violinists Kristóf Baráti as Artist of the Season. The critically acclaimed Szeged Contemporary Ballettakes to the stage as the Ensemble of the Season, providing an extraordinary variety of performance – from a production of the hugely successful Josephslegende (7 April 2017) to an exciting reworking of famed opera composer Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Don Juan and a translation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (10 May 2017) concerto series into a narrative of dance.
From more information or to book tickets, visit www.mupa.hu
- ENDS -
Müpa Budapest
Müpa Budapest is one of Hungary's best-known cultural brands and one of its most modern cultural institutions. It provides a home for classical, contemporary, popular and world music, not to mention jazz and opera, as well as contemporary circus, dance, literature and film. The venue opened its doors in 2005, and plays a major role in nurturing cultural relationships with other countries, in advancing Hungarian interests, and in increasing international recognition for Hungarian performing artists. An active member of Europe’s largest organisation for concert halls (ECHO), Müpa Budapest promotes professional exchange and supports the career of young artists of exceptional talent, teaming up with venues like the Barbican Centre London, Sage Gateshead and the Town Hall & Symphony Hall Birmingham.
Müpa's multi-genre repertoire currently counts over a thousand events a year. In the past five years Hungary has been experiencing a staggering 40% rise in the number of visitors from the United Kingdom, making it the third largest tourist source country. Similarly, Hungary’s most prestigious venue attracts from year to year a growing number of some of the most outstanding British artists such as Simon Rattle, John Eliot Gardiner, Neville Marriner, Roger Norrington, Daniel Harding, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and orchestras like the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Britten Sinfonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. During its first 10 years, some of the most memorable performances of the Müpa Budapest have been given by Elvis Costello, Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside, John McLaughlin, Marianne Faithfull, The King's Singers, Hilliard Ensemble, Sam Lee, Michael Nyman, Karl Jenkins, Bryn Terfel, Jonny Greenwood and Mark Padmore, just to name a few. Movie enthusiasts can recognize the hallmark spaces of Müpa during the scenes of Ridley Scott's movie The Martian.
Müpa Budapest
Budapest
Komor Marcell u. 1.
1095 Hungary
Press inquiries: press@mupa.hu
Telephone: +36 1 555 3000