Future opera stars at the Liszt Academy

As it was put by Andrea Meláth, Head of the Department of Vocal and Opera Studies, one of the initiators of the Opera Exam Festival, organised for the fifth time this year, starting on 16 January „Opera today expects young singers to have quite complex skills. It is not only the vocal competencies that matter but an intense stage presence good enough for prosaic actors, refined body movement as well as the ability to switch from speaking to singing.”

Photo: Liszt Academy / Andrea Felvégi

The Opera Exam Festival held at the Liszt Academy in January in cooperation with other partner universities each year can be regarded as a tradition. This year, guest singers taking to the stage won’t arrive only from other European countries but also from more distant continents. The performances will be music treats ranging from the beginning of opera singing right to contemporary pieces.

This year’s Festival will make its opening featuring the singers of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music performing Tang Xianzu, a contemporary Chinese opera. This will be followed by Gian Carlo Menotti: The medium, a production of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. The students of the Liszt Academy of Budapest will enter the stage with an opera-patchwork focussing on the story of Armida combining it with contemporary musical reflections. The Opera Exam Festival will be closed with Britten: The Rape of Lucretia performed by the Dutch National Opera Academy.

„Today, it is essential for young singers to think internationally extending their professional network worldwide, this is the reason why this festival holds a great potential: the participants can gain insight into the work of their peers coming from other cultures, thus – having an international comparison - they will be able to judge their own skills and competencies more realistically. The motivational factor of the event is invaluable” – as was pointed out by Prof Andrea Meláth, who also added that the „multifaceted and experimental nature of the productions as well as the stage energy of the young singers are the evidence for the fact that the genre is still bustling with life,” while the Festival itself is a unique initiative in its own right.