Opera exam festival

Our primary mission with the event was to initiate a festival where our audience had the opportunity to become familiarised with the exam performances of our international partner institutions as well. In the spirit of this concept, three or four universities bring their highly original plays, and the performances are completed with thematic workshops to further broaden the professional experience of the participants.

Among the participating institutions of the festival we can find the Cherubini Conservatory, the Adam Mickiewicz University from Poznan, the Opera High School in Stockholm, and the Drama, Applied Arts and Music Academy of Zagreb.

Opera director of the Liszt Academy, András Almási-Tóth summarised the artistic concept of the festival as follows: “Opera exams open up new dimensions not just in the interpretation of well-known works, but in rediscovering forgotten pieces or putting new works on the stage. There are no pressures from producers or the need to sell the performance; they can experiment bravely, undertaking risky premieres, there is no ‘production line' feeling, no double roles, no stepping in at the last moment, no restrictions other than that students should develop and learn from it. We are granted unbelievable freedom in the selection of theme and work, and in their realization. Opera exams are capable of giving back opera's primeval, pure form to the audience, where the joy of play and discovery is the only guiding principle.”

Quick report about Opera Exam Festival 2018.

The project has been supported by the Hungarian Academy of Arts.