Gala concert of the St. Petersburg Chamber OPera

Giacomo Puccini MADAMA BUTTERFLY Opera in three acts, in Italian with Hungarian, English, and Italian subtitles

Wayne Eagling – Tamás Solymosi / Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky THE NUTCRACKER Fairy-tale ballet in two acts

A century ago, the world first encountered this remarkable opus, a work that soon became one of the cornerstones of twentieth-century musical innovation. Premiered in 1926, the singspiel is a milestone in Hungarian music history: its composer, Zoltán Kodály, fulfilled his aspiration to elevate Hungarian folk song of ancient origin to the same status as classical music, by virtue of its equivalent values, placing it on the stage of the nation’s Opera House.