From the autumn of 1861, Liszt spent more and more time in Rome, where his interest turned towards church music. In 1862 he completed his first oratorio, The Legend of St. Elizabeth. Liszt already took a strong interest in the life of the Hungarian princess and Bavarian duchess during his Weimar years, and even visited her former home, the castle of Wartburg, in the company of the Grand Duke of Weimar.

“My relationship to St. Elizabeth is particularly gentle. Like she, I was born in Hungary, and I spent twelve years that were key to my life and career in Thuringia, very close to the castle of Wartburg, where she lived, and to Marburg, where she died.”

The Hungarian National Philharmonic will be conducted by their musical director, Zsolt Hamar. The title role of the oratorio will be sung by Brigitta Kele, who made her debut at Cluj-Napoca’s Romanian National Opera, regularly performs in Düsseldorf, Paris, Avignon and Strasbourg, and was featured in the last season in the New York Metropolitan’s production of La bohème.