Hungarian State Opera Unveils 142nd Season Featuring World Premieres and Classical Masterpieces

The Hungarian State Opera has announced its 142nd season, offering a comprehensive lineup of 385 performances for 2025/26. The season will include seven new premieres, 36 different repertoire productions, 14 children’s and youth performances, and more than two dozen concerts and recitals. Subscriptions are available until June 30, with single ticket sales beginning May 20, 2025.

Highlights include a new production of Wagner’s Lohengrin, returning to the Opera House for the first time in two decades on November 15, 2025. The season also sees the return of Beethoven’s Fidelio on April 16, 2026, in Tobias Kratzer’s 2020 staging from London, and a new staging of Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Eiffel Art Studios on May 15, 2026.

Two world premieres will debut as part of the Bartók Spring programme: The Verdict by János Vajda and Royal Highness by György Selmeczi, both one-act operas by Kossuth Prize-winning Hungarian composers, premiering April 11, 2026. Additional premieres for younger audiences include Little Coppélia by the Hungarian National Ballet Institute and Beauty and the Beast, a new opera by Péter Tóth.

Anna Netrebko will make her first appearance in a staged production at the Hungarian State Opera as Lady Macbeth. Other guest artists include Christopher Sokolowski (Lohengrin), Giorgi Sturua (Turandot), Andrei Danilov (La bohème, Rigoletto), and Vassilis Kavayas (L’italiana in Algeri). Conductor Constantin Trinks will make his Opera House debut with Parsifal.

The Stars' Recitals with Piano series will return for a fourth season featuring Joseph Calleja, Ludovic Tézier, Freddie De Tommaso, Asmik Grigorian, Nadine Sierra, Aigul Akhmetsina, Long Long, and Michael Volle. A gala featuring the Georg Solti Academy’s young singers is also planned.

Hungarian opera icons will be featured in the Prima Donnas +2 Heroes series, including performances by Gábor Bretz, Mihály Kálmándy, Klára Kolonits, and others. A gala concert titled Return Victorious! will celebrate these artists alongside newly awarded Kossuth Prize laureate Péter Fried.

The season will also present eight Mozart operas, works by Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, and Donizetti, and revivals of Hungarian operas including Ferenc Erkel’s Bánk bán and Péter Eötvös’s Valuska. The Hungarian National Ballet will stage all three of Tchaikovsky’s ballets in one season, along with contemporary works by choreographers Kylián, Inger, and others.

Major symphonic works include Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder.

To mark the 1025th anniversary of Hungarian statehood, the Opera will host a commemorative series titled Saint Stephen 2025, beginning with Stephen, the King on New Year’s Eve and concluding with a concert performance of Ferenc Erkel’s King Stephen on February 15, 2026.

Educational offerings include children’s and youth-focused performances such as The Little Sweep, Hungarian Christmas, and Little Swan Lake. Teenagers will have access to operas and ballets through the Petőfi Cultural Programme.

A new concert venue, HangÁR, will open at the Eiffel Art Studios for crossover programming. Opera Bistro has opened at the Ybl Palace, and the Opera Archives will launch a permanent exhibition in early 2026.

Internationally, the Opera will tour to Dubai in September 2025 with La bohème, Swan Lake, and a Beethoven concert. Additional tours to Italy and Japan are in development. Three superstar tenors will also record albums in Budapest with the Opera Orchestra.

More information is available at www.opera.hu.