Renovated Opera House in Budapest Starts 139th Season

The Hungarian State Opera announced its 2022-2023 thematic season under the title ‘Myth & History’. In the renovated Ybl Palace on Andrássy Avenue, the opera house will also be offering a number of new spaces with new features, new publications and a chamber exhibition.

In its 139th season, the Opera is presenting more than 500 theatrical performances and programs of various kinds in two venues, the Opera House and the Eiffel Workshop, along with 53 repertoire works and 16 performances, including seven full-length, large-scale productions – opera and ballet.

The Opera's next season will be inspired by the interlocking relationship between myths and history, with many of its works inspired by mythological events, private myths or historical events.

In the course of the renovation process of the Ybl Palace, the entire façade, its decoration, the decorative lighting of the main façade and roof, and the roof cladding were renewed as part of the 55 billion HUF investment, almost four times the original budget set in 2016. The designers have restored the original colors and materials of the façade and interiors of the public spaces, and the lighting of the interiors has also been renewed.

A new curtain was installed in the theatre's enlarged curtain room, while the iron curtain was covered with a bronze-effect covering. The so-called tin curtain, which is a plywood element that, unlike the previous velvet curtain, does not absorb sound, was completed. The auditorium blind was restored to its original size and its angle of inclination reconstructed. A number of solutions have been adopted to improve the acoustic experience, including the arrangement of the ground-floor seating in a horseshoe-shaped block. The capacity of the auditorium was reduced from 1,200 to 1,000 people, and standing room was provided for students in the gallery.

In order to improve accessibility, public lifts were installed in the auditorium staircase and the leveling of the auditorium staircase was aligned and integrated with the staircase landing and the upstairs box rows.

The central element of the renovation is the computer-controlled stage lower and upper machinery. A state-of-the-art dressing room for the orchestra was created in the place of the joiner's workshops in the basement, and the ensemble added six new instrument practice rooms and an instrument storage room.