The official opening will be held on Thursday, November 7, 2013. on the date of the birth of Ferenc Erkel.
District VIII., 30. II. János Pál pápa Square – Budapest
The Erkel Theater opened its door to the audience in the last century, 1910, At the time being this theater was Hungary’s largest theater building. It was also considered as the golden age of the Hungarian opera. Time came in 2007 when the theater had to be closed to take place in architectural renovation and reconstructions. The procedure took a bit more than 5 years.
At the press and media call the Secretary of State for Culture, Mr. János Halász, Mr. Szilveszet Ókovács, Director of the National Opera House and the architect Mr. Gábor Zoboli welcomed the high number of gathering. Mr. János Halász welcomed the media persons by saying, he is delighted to see the theater in such a beauty it deserves to be and have high hopes in the future beside the adult and elder visitors, for the young generation to come to be often as being audience at the opera and ballet performances.
By reopening the reconstructed Erkel Theater was a long time dream for Mr. Szilveszter Ókovács, the director, but added he is most sure the young and elder audience dream also come true who in the past regularly visited the theater. He also added: Quote: „Of course, the theater’s artists dream was also fulfilled. From now on there will be much more opportunities for plays, previously held at the Opera House to be brought to the Erkel theater. He talked about the coming season’s other performances on schedule, saying this coming season 120 opera and ballet productions will be on stage. Also wish to host opera and folk dances, as guest performances from Hungary’s other regions theaters. In the past Erkel theater always bared with excellent acoustic sound, today is no difference, therefore pop concerts will be held and it is conceivable that in the future there will be large-scale of music productions to be brought on stage.
Unfortunately, at the moment the change of scenes on the stage are carried out mechanically by hand. It is a key question to have the current stage to be transformed into an easily transferred electronic equipment. This will faster the scenes in making the changes. said. At the former building the problem was to bring on stage an opera or a ballet performances Was not feasible because of the size of the stage and the backstage and didn’t meet the required height for the presentation, said by Mr. Zoboki. Plans are already out to complete the reconstruction of the stage. Until the official handover of the theater which will take place on the 7th of November, there will be still some minor works which will not interrupt the forthcoming
24 performances, within the series of the Opera Youth Adventure, on October, 6 started with Háry János composed by Zoltán Kodály.
After the welcoming greeting words we were led up the stairway to the reception area, the facade, stairway to upper levels, corridors, changing rooms, renovated and renewed water blocks, the backstage, stepping ont he grounds of the stage, were shown the newly formed orchestra pit, at the remained shell form design stage and finally stepping into the auditorium seen the new carpets and reborn seats. This is where our press tour ended by entering the delicate buffet, whereas the ray of sun shined in the huge impressive wall of windows looking onto the street, whereas flower beds caught the eye. Such an impressive bar hall. Next sight that brought much attention was at both ends at the bar, the amazingly beautiful frescoes. These two frescos (can be seen in the slide-show) are by works of Mr. Bernáth Aurél. Indeed, they are the „pearls” of the bar and even though there was second thoughts of having them hidden, they were not removed from the walls during the reconstruction works. One of the theater’s conversion plan included and developed to have rail stair lift to achieve the disability access. So from now on the disabled individuals can with ease have access to enjoy the colorful culture events to come at the Erkel Theater. Beside the „many goods”, there was a little black mark regarding the „social spaces” which will make many ladies in the audience feel low, i.e. the number of lady’s room. In a huge theater where 15 or 20 minutes of intermission takes place, I sadly observed at the massive building of the Erkel Theater the shortfalls of lady’s room which are still subjects at the cultural institutions.
All-in-all wonderful experience give back the audience the renewed and reopened Erkel Theater.
Update and snaps Aggie Reiter
Rolling in Budapest 