The enthusiastic applause of more than 40,000 spectators and half a dozen sold-out performances characterized the 12-night guest appearance of the Hungarian State Opera and the Hungarian National Ballet in Taipei and Kaohsiung between 2 and 6 April 2025. Following the positive reception of Madama Butterfly and Swan Lake, the possibility has arisen for the OPERA ensembles to return to the island in the 2026/27 season.
Following an inquiry from an American agency, the Hungarian State Opera has just concluded the most ambitious Taiwanese tour in its history. It was the first time the company had presented an opera performance in Taiwan. As part of the guest tour, the OPERA revived Miklós Gábor Kerényi’s 2000 production of Madama Butterfly, while the ballet company performed Rudi van Dantzig and Toer van Schayk’s Swan Lake, a choreography that has been part of its repertoire since 2015.
All three ballet and three opera performances held at the National Theatre in Taipei were completely sold out, and the productions of the Hungarian State Opera were met with great interest and enthusiasm exceeding expectations at the Weiwuying – National Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts, considered the cultural hub of southern Taiwan. The opera and ballet companies performed simultaneously at the two venues: on 2 and 3 April, Madama Butterfly was staged in Kaohsiung, while Swan Lake was shown in Taipei. Subsequently, on 5 and 6 April, Madama Butterfly was performed in Taipei and Swan Lake in Kaohsiung.
The Hungarian State Opera travelled to Taiwan with a staff of nearly 180 people. In Madama Butterfly, the title role was performed by Eszter Sümegi, Kinga Kriszta, and Gabriella Létay Kiss in rotation, alongside Adorján Pataki and Gergely Boncsér (Pinkerton), Károly Szemerédy (Sharpless), Mária Farkasréti and Lusine Sahakyan (Suzuki), Péter Balczó (Goro), András Kiss (Bonzo), Barna Bartos (Yamadori), and Zsuzsanna Kapi (Kate). In Swan Lake, the leading roles were performed by three alternating casts: Tatyjana Melnyik, Maria Yakovleva, and Soobin Lee (Odette/Odile); Dmitry Timofeev, Louis Scrivener, and Boris Zhurilov (Siegfried); and Mikalai Radziush, Takaaki Okajima, and Vladislav Melnyik (Rothbart). The opera performances were conducted by István Dénes, with distinguished local orchestras, the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra (KSO) and the Taipei Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, providing the musical accompaniment. Meanwhile, the ballet performances were accompanied by a recorded orchestral track by the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, conducted by Gábor Hontvári.
