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The Miskolc Opera Festival or International Opera Festival of Miskolc(Miskolci Nemzetközi Operafesztivál) was a cultural event held every summer in Miskolc, the capital of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Hungary. The event offers a selection of opera performances with the participations of famous artists from all over the world and was created by Péter Müller Sziámi, the former art director of the National Theatre of Miskolc in 2001.
The main venue was the National Theatre of Miskolc, the current building dating from 1847. The main auditorium (capacity 687), the summer theatre (500) and chamber theatre (270) are used for stage works. Concerts also took place in the Ice Hall (winter sports hall), the House of the Arts and churches such as the Protestant Church, Kossuth u, as well as in public squares.
It was also called "Bartók + ... Opera Festival", because each year the festival focused on the works of Bartók plus another composer or composers. There were chamber recitals alongside the operatic performances as well as events for children and films.
Some productions are from visiting companies; in 2009 Moscow Helikon Opera, Szeged National Theatre and Latvian National Opera were among these.
In 2017, the festival marked the half millennium of the reformation with productions of Scaevola (world premiere) by Mátyássy Szabolcs, an opera-musical The Master and Margarita by Levente Gyöngyösi, María de Buenos Aires by Piazzolla, Candide by Bernstein, Jr. Butterfly by Shigeaki Saegusa, as well as Bluebeard's Castle and The Spinning Room . [1]
During festival time MVK Rt. operates a veteran tram which stops outside the theatre, where regular trams do not stop, and is free for festival patrons with tickets.
The last edition of the festival took place in 2019. [2]
Since 2001, festivals have had as their theme;
In 2007, the festival contained a concert of the Swedish symphonic metal band Therion with a complete symphonic orchestra and choir, the second such performance of them ever. The show included a full orchestral version of their song "Clavicula Nox", and music by Antonín Dvořák, Giuseppe Verdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Camille Saint-Saëns and Richard Wagner. The second part of the show featured the band's assorted songs, in which classical instruments and choir have a significant role.
After the great success of this concert, the tradition of rock-classical events was established under the name "Opera-Rock-Show". For the 2008 festival, the Dutch band Epica was invited to play. As Therion a year before, they also played their own songs in addition to classical pieces by many classical composers including Vivaldi, Dvořák, Verdi, Grieg, plus soundtracks of the movies Star Wars , Spider-Man and Pirates of the Caribbean .
The 2010 Festival featured two concerts: one of by the Hungarian rock band Republic and the other by Tarja Turunen, who was originally scheduled for 2009, but due to organisation problems it was postponed. The shows have been seemingly discontinued in the following years, there were neither plans, no rumours about more acts.
Both Therion's and Epica's performances were released as a live album in 2009 by Nuclear Blast Records. While Epica issued only a double CD with the name The Classical Conspiracy , Therion also had DVD recordings called The Miskolc Experience .
Therion is a Swedish symphonic metal band founded by Christofer Johnsson in 1987. Its name was inspired by the Celtic Frost album To Mega Therion. "To Mega Therion" is Greek for "The Great Beast" and was a title used by occultist Aleister Crowley. Originally a death metal band, Therion adjusted its musical style by adding orchestral elements, including choirs, classical musicians, and even a full orchestra at their concert performances. As a result, they are considered pioneers of the symphonic metal genre.
Epica is a Dutch symphonic metal band, founded by guitarist and vocalist Mark Jansen after his departure from After Forever.
The Canadian Opera Company (COC) is an opera company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest opera company in Canada and one of the largest producers of opera in North America. The COC performs in its own opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. For forty years until April 2006, the COC had performed at the O'Keefe Centre.
Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitars of metal with different elements of orchestral classical music, such as symphonic instruments, choirs and sometimes a full orchestra, or just keyboard orchestration.
José Luis Victor Cura Gómez is an Argentine operatic tenor, conductor, director, scenographer and photographer known for intense and original interpretations of opera characters, notably Otello in Verdi’s Otello, Samson in Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila, Canio in Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Stiffelio in Giuseppe Verdi's Stiffelio and many others.
Union Avenue Opera is an opera company based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was founded in 1994 by Scott Schoonover, the music director of Union Avenue Christian Church, which serves as the company's venue in St. Louis' Visitation Park neighborhood.
Sharon Sweet is an American dramatic soprano. Sharon Sweet has appeared in leading roles in several major venues in Europe and the United States and has made notable contributions to several recordings, in particular Lohengrin, Der Freischütz, Don Giovanni, and Il Trovatore. In 1999, she accepted a full-time teaching position at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. In a column in Opera News, Sweet stated that she made the move out of frustration with the current operatic scene which emphasized physical appearance over voice. She cited her struggles with Hashimoto's syndrome, a thyroid condition.
Grange Park Opera is a professional opera company and charity whose base is West Horsley Place in Surrey, England. Founded in 1998, the company staged an annual opera festival at The Grange, in Hampshire and in 2016–7, built a new opera house, the 'Theatre in the Woods', at West Horsley Place – the 350-acre estate inherited by author and broadcaster Bamber Gascoigne in 2014.
The Classical Conspiracy is the second live album released by the Dutch symphonic metal band Epica. The recorded live show took part in Miskolc, Hungary on 14 June 2008 in the framework of the Miskolc Opera Festival, where the Swedish symphonic metal band Therion had done a similar show a year before. Epica performed on stage with a 40-piece orchestra and a 30-piece choir, entirely composed of Hungarian musicians conducted by Zsolt Regos. The expanded ensemble played classical music, excerpts from operas and movie soundtracks, as well as Epica's songs. The album was released on 8 May 2009 through Nuclear Blast Records.
The Miskolc Experience is the title of a double live album by Therion. It was released in Europe in June 2009. Unlike their other live albums this doesn't only feature the band's original material, but also Therion covering various pieces from classical artists. It was recorded at the 2007 Miskolc Opera Festival.
Cristina Iordachescu is a Romanian mezzo-soprano and pianist. She was born October 8, 1966, in Bucharest.
Pavla Vykopalová is a Czech soprano.
Ivo Gamulin Gianni is a Croatian theatrical and television performer and singer.
Evgeny Sheyko, a Russian conductor, musical figure was Chief Conductor of Nizhny Novgorod State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.
Bergen National Opera in Bergen, Norway, originally called Den Nye Opera is a foundation established in 2005 by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Den Nationale Scene, Grieghallen and the Bergen International Festival. In 2007 Opera Vest became a part of the foundation, which aims to be the regional opera company for Western Norway.
Csaba Káel is a Hungarian film director and CEO of Müpa Budapest. He was awarded the Kossuth Prize in 2020 and the Kálmán Nádasdy Prize in 2013.
Adolf Čech was a Czech conductor, who premiered a number of significant works by Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, Zdeněk Fibich and other Czech composers. He also led the first performances outside Russia of two operas by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Czech premieres of seven operettas by Jacques Offenbach. He was also a bass singer and a translator of opera librettos.
Christopher Ward is a British conductor. In August 2018 he became the Music Director of Theater Aachen.
Filip Bandžak is a Czech operatic baritone.
Krisztián Cser is a Hungarian operatic and concert singer (bass) and physicist, the soloist of the Hungarian State Opera.