The season opener production of the Hungarian State Opera is a real treat. For the first time ever, Carl Orff’s masterpiece can be experienced in a way the composer always intended: a stage production. Commissioned by the Opera, this new production promises to enchant audiences with unique, magical images enhancing the well-known piece.
Few people know that Carmina Burana was not intended to be an oratorical work, but was instead expressly meant for the stage. This becomes clear from the piece’s (originally Latin) subtitle: “Secular songs for singers and chorus to be sung together with instruments and magical images”. The concept of the new Carmina Burana production that is the brainchild of conductor Tibor Bogányi and painter Ágnes Zászkaliczky uses innovative technology to reform the world of classical music.
Over the course of the many times he has conducted the work, Tibor Bogányi gradually developed a vision for a staged version. „Our aim was to create an innovative production worthy of worldwide attention,” says conductor–director Tibor Bogányi. „Classical concerts are difficult to complement with visual images that do not put music out of focus. It is essential that we do not make music to a film but the other way round: it is a live concert spiced with visual elements.” The artistic concept devised by a musician and a visual artist makes music visible.
The artists of Freelusion Video Mapping Studio have conceived a breathtaking spectacle to surround the three soloists, the three dancers from the Hungarian National Ballet and the monumental 120-strong chorus on the stage of the Erkel Theatre, with real-time 3D video mapping creating “magical images” coming to life on six projection displays and LED walls. Thus the Hungarian State Opera presents a “Gesamtkunstwerk” with an innovative, cutting edge technology: the combination of music, dance and 3D visuals takes operatic experience into a new dimension.
Soprano: Erika Miklósa / Rita Rácz
Tenor: István Horváth
Baritone: Csaba Szegedi / Zsolt Haja
Concept: Tibor Bogányi, Attila Könnyű, Ágnes Zászkaliczky
Artistic leaders: Tibor Bogányi, Ágnes Zászkaliczky
Conductor, director: Tibor Bogányi
3D projection mapping: Freelusion
Choreographer, visual designer: Tímea Papp
Chief graphic designer: Ádám Herczeg
Costume designer: Mónika Szelei
Premiere: 22 September 2018 | Erkel Theatre, Budapest
Further dates: 23 September, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 October 2018
