Bill Manhof: Bagoly és Cica

The tenor, recently awarded the title of Austrian Kammersänger, began his career on operetta stages. After performing in operas by Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber, he has since grown into one of the most significant Wagnerian Heldentenors of our time.

There are evenings when our Opera House cannot perform because rehearsals are ongoing on stage until the evening. There are audience members who can only afford to hear their favourite pieces with a discount. And there are works that, although very popular, cannot be staged every season due to the congestion of productions.

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.