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© Magyar Állami Operaház
Coppélia
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October 2024 | ||||||
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COPPELIA - Gyula Harangozó / Léo Delibes
Comic dance in three acts
Performance length: 2 hours 30 minutes, with 2 intermissions.
E. T. A.Hoffmann is widelyassociated with The Nutcracker while fewer know that the story of Coppeliais based on his short story, The Sandman (Der Sandmann). The author,known to be a polymath himself, also designed various machines and automatons, and he was perfectly aware how easy it is to fall in love with your own creation. A ballet version of Coppelia was first premiered in Hungary in1877, later it was adapted by Gyula Harangozó, in 1953. More thanseventy years afterwards, on the fiftieth anniversary of the choreographer’s death, the production returns to the Hungarian National Ballet’s repertoire to prove that classical ballet, pantomime, and magic tricks can co-exist just as perfectly as Léo Delibes’ late romantic music and the Hungarian czardas.
Synopsis
Act 1
The scene is a small town in Poland, near the Galician border. The billposter sticks up a bill calling the people’s attention to the celebration of the inauguration of the bell and to the dancing competition. Swanilda the bell-founder’s daughter is going to take part in the competition and she is proud to show her new dress to her friends. The square fills with people. The young men’s attention is drawn by the girl sitting by the window in the house of the old jack-of-all-trades Coppelius. They start a virtuoso dance to arouse her interest. Swanilda’s fiancé Francois also takes part in the dance, at the end of which the unknown beauty drops a handkerchief to thank them for the performance. Francois picks it up proudly but, at this moment, Swanilda appears. She has seen everything and runs away wounded in her pride.
Driven by curiosity, the boys make noise around Coppelius’ house. The man sets out to chase them away but he loses the key to the gate, which is found by a friend of Swanilda’s. The girls are also curious about the house and the mysterious girl, so they creep into the house, Swanilda among them. Arriving in excitement, Coppelius hurries in through the open door of his house in bad suspicion.
Act 2
The girls look around Coppelius’s study in shy curiosity. Swanilda is interested in nobody but her rival. She steps closer to perceive that it is only a doll. Playing obliviously, the girls wind up the doll, which starts dancing. Coppelius arrives and drives the intruders out of the house. He is ready to get down to work to bring his favourite doll Coppelia to perfection. He carries her out of the window-niche. Later on he notices that a living person is hiding behind the mask. It is Swanilda – to escape Coppelius’ wrath she donned the doll’s clothes and mask. The old man becomes furious, but he is willing to pardon the girl if she puts on the doll’s mask again to teach Francois a lesson.
The boy soon rolls into the room through the chimney. Coppelius chases him, then threatens him with various devices, and eventually introduces Coppelia to him. Francois behaves shyly at first, but later he starts courting her with more and more passion. Swanilda cannot take any more. Tearing her mask off, she runs away. Coppelius watches the scene with malice: his plot has worked. The deceived boy smashes things to pieces in his rage and hurries away with the real Coppelia doll.
Act 3
The bell inauguration feast is about to start. Francois arrives at the square with the Coppelia doll. The girls watch the boys scornfully: Was all the excitement about this ‘girl’? Francois asks Swanilda to forgive him when suddenly confusion breaks out. Coppelius rushes in to complain to the mayor about the great wrong he has suffered, demanding satisfaction. The mayor pays for his damage and Coppelius leaves the scene with his doll. Everybody is happy about what has happened. The young people start dancing, and then they celebrate the winners of the competition, the betrothed Swanilda and Francois.
Program and cast
Conductor: David Coleman
Bellfounder: István Kohári
Wife of the Bellfounder: Eszter Lovisek, Ágnes Riedl
Swanilda, their daughter: Claudia García Carriera, Maria Yakovleva, Tatyjana Melnyik
Franz, her fiancé: András Rónai, Louis Scrivener, Motomi Kiyota
Coppelius: Miklós Dávid Kerényi, András Szegő, Maxim Kovtun
Coppelia: Jessica Carulla Leon, Soobin Lee, Diana Kosyreva
Mayor: Roland Vékes, Alekszandr Komarov guest
Wife of the Mayor: Edit Darab-Fehér, Zsuzsanna Papp
Billposter: Luca Massara, Kóbor Demeter
Dance master: Boris Myasnikov, Roland Vékes
Nightwatchman: Yago Guerra, Vince Topolánszky
Town clerk: Ricardo Vila M.
Pas de six: Artemisz Pisla, Yuliya Radziush, Matilde Noemi Barbaglia, Mattheus Bäckström, Alberto Ortega de Pablos, Vince Topolánszky, Elena Sharipova, Ashlee Crowe, Lea Földi, Gaetano Cottonaro, Viachaslau Hnedchyk, Carlos Taravillo Mahillo
Friends: Kateryna Horiaieva, Lilia Kaliko, Stefanida Ovcharenko, Adrienn Horányi, Anastasiia Konstantinova
Friends: Valerio Palumbo, Dmitry Zhukov, Christian Mathot, Takaaki Okajima, Riku Yamamoto
Hungarian Sergeant: Iurii Kekalo, Mikalai Radziush
Polish girl: Katerina Tarasova, Kristina Starostina, Aglaja Sawatzki
Her fiancé: Timofiy Bykovets, Kóbor Demeter, Vlagyiszlav Melnyik
Hungarian State Opera
STANDING ROOM TICKETS - INFORMATION IN CASE OF A FULL HOUSE!
If all the seats are sold out for the selected time, but you still want to see the production on that day, 84 of the extremely affordable standing seats will be sold at the theatre, 2 hours before the start of the performance, with which you can visit the gallery on the 3rd floor. Tickets can be purchased at the ticket office of the Budapest Opera House. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the stage can only be seen to a limited extent from the standing places and the side seats, but at the same time, following the performance is also supported by television broadcasting on the spot.
The Opera House is not only one of the most significant art relic of Budapest, but the symbol of the Hungarian operatic tradition of more than three hundred years as well. The long-awaited moment in Hungarian opera life arrived on September 27, 1884, when, in the presence of Franz Joseph I. the Opera House was opened amid great pomp and ceremony. The event, however, erupted into a small scandal - the curious crowd broke into the entrance hall and overran the security guards in order to catch a glimpse of the splendid Palace on Sugar út. Designed by Mikós Ybl, a major figure of 19th century Hungarian architecture, the construction lived up to the highest expectations. Ornamentation included paintings and sculptures by leading figures of Hungarian art of the time: Károly Lotz, Bertalan Székely, Mór Than and Alajos Stróbl. The great bronze chandelier from Mainz and the stage machinery moda by the Asphaleia company of Vienna were both considered as cutting-edge technology at that time.
Many important artists were guests here including Gustav Mahler, the composer who was director in Budapest from 1887 to 1891. He founded the international prestige of the institution, performing Wagner operas as well as Magcagni’ Cavalleria Rusticana. The Hungarian State Opera has always maintained high professional standards, inviting international stars like Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Monserrat Caballé, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, José Cura, Thomas Hampson and Juan Diego Flórez to perform on its stage. The Hungarian cast include outstanding and renowed artists like Éva Marton, Ilona Tokody, Andrea Rost, Dénes Gulyás, Attila Fekete and Gábor Bretz.
© Magyar Állami Operaház
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