GIUSEPPE VERDI: Aida

Aida                Roberta Mantegna 

Amneris          Victória Pitts

Radamès         Alfred Kim

Amonasro       Alexandru Agache

Ramfis             András Palerdi

King                István Kovács

Messenger      Jenő Dékán

Priestess         Gabriella Busa

Hungarian National Choir (choirmaster: Csaba Somos)

Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor: Riccardo Frizza

During his tenure, Zoltán Kocsis felt it was important to include complete operas on the programme of the Hungarian National Philharmonic – a conviction to which we owe both the memorable Richard Strauss productions and the reconstruction (itself credited to Kocsis) of Schönberg’s Moses und Aron. György Vashegyi also considers it a matter of importance for the orchestra and choir to offer a special experience to their audience by occasionally performing a complete opera. The first performance on the schedule for the Hungarian National Philharmonic’s Opera season ticket is Verdi’s Aida, one of the most popular works for the musical stage works of all time – starring an international cast.

Giuseppe Verdi composed Aida to a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. The four-act opera was first performed at the Cairo Opera House on 24 December 1871, under the baton of the double-bass virtuoso Giovanni Bottesini. As it was primarily heads of state and other politicians who attended this event, Verdi, who did not even go to Egypt, regarded the Milan performance in February 1872 as the work’s true world premiere.  Roberta Mantegna, the Italian soprano portraying the title character in this production by the  Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, won the Concorso Internazionale Toti dal Monte in Treviso in 2015 and the Concours International de Belcanto Vincenzo Bellini in Marseille the following year.  Singing Radamès will be the Korean tenor Alfred Kim, who won an international competition in Vienna in 1997, followed by another one in Munich the next year. Brazil mezzo-soprano Victória Pitts and Romanian baritone Alexandru Agache, taking the stage as Amneris and Amonasro, respectively, also add to the guarantee that this performance will be an international one. The Hungarian singers joining them – such as András Palerdi (Ramfis), István Kovács (King), Jenő Dékán (Messenger) and Gabriella Busa (High Priestess) – will contribute to the high standard of the evening as well. Anyone who has watched Italian conductor Riccardo Frizza, who has grown increasingly popular in Hungary in recent years, at work on the podium knows that this performance is in good hands.