⚠️ Please be advised that the performance will feature loud sound effects.

BUFO, the Budapest Independent Opera Theater, was founded to establish independent contemporary opera performances in the city: by involving theater and music professionals, they aim to create a channel for contemporary opera productions that, partly by breaking away from traditional venues, can also appeal to independent theater audiences. Their debut performance, titled Édenkert (Garden of Eden), will take place at the BMC, serving both as a first attempt and a statement  – bringing fresh perspectives, pushing genre boundaries, full of playfulness, and featuring unique works.

The Garden of Eden consists of a poetic composition for choir and piano, as well as two one-act operas. The evening begins with György Kurtág’s Mi is a szó? (What is the Word?), composed to a text by Samuel Beckett for Ildikó Monyók, who was (re)learning to speak after an accident.

Shostakovich wrote his short opera Antiformalist Rayok under Stalin; it was not until decades later that it could be presented to the public. The piece uses grotesque humor to portray demagogic politicians arguing about art, highlighting that as soon as art is turned into propaganda, it becomes merely an empty, often (tragi)comic shadow of itself. One of the unique features of the performance is that the four politicians are all played by Dávid Vizi, actor of the József Katona Theater. Shostakovich’s text is adapted by Renátó Fehér, while the score is arranged for string quintet by Ádám Bajnok. 

The third work of the evening is a Hungarian premiere: the one-act opera The Town of Greed by contemporary Catalan-American composer Leonardo Balada. The piece depicts life in a small American town in the 1990s, where the primary goal of the town’s leadership is corruption and the deception of the people. The work sharply highlights the themes of populism, propaganda, and the rapidly shifting public mood. The music’s playful, erratic, and at times lyrical character serves as an ideal introduction to the genre even for those just getting acquainted with contemporary opera, while on stage, unusual situations – such as phone calls switching back and forth and pop-up characters – spice the surreal narrative. The many roles are cast to a small number of singers, so the virtuosic transformations, off-stage voices and phone conversations require a meticulously crafted yet elegantly generous production. The opera is staged in an adapted version translated to Hungarian, developed by the BUFO company in collaboration with Renátó Fehér and with the author’s approval. Starring: Kristóf Fülöp, Júlia Fujita, Antal Cseh, and Bernadett Nagy.

The production is directed by Tamás Ördög, and the twelve-member chamber orchestra is conducted by Bence Juhász. 

The poster for the performance was created by graphic designer Attila Stark.