PROGRAM
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
R. Strauss: Four Last Songs
Prokofjev: Romeo and Juliet – Suite No. 1 and 2.
Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila – Bacchanale
FEATURING
Eszter Sümegi - soprano
Eszter Sümegi, the soloist of our concert, is a Kossuth Prize-winner, Artist of Merit soprano. We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the beginning of her artistic career with a concert. In the year of her graduation from the Academy of Music, she won first prize at the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition in Philadelphia, and has been a private singer at the Hungarian State Opera ever since. In 2012, she was among the first to receive the honorary title of ‚Chamber Singer of the Hungarian State Opera‘. Her first solo album was released in 2003, entitled "Love, Blood and Fire", with the contribution of the MÁV Symphony Orchestra. Her repertoire includes almost 20 roles, mainly in operas by Verdi, Puccini, Wagner and Richard Strauss. She has been a guest soloist all over the world.
Each of the pieces in our concert program is about love. Wagner's work is a wedding gift for his young wife; the story of Romeo and Juliet, which inspired numerous musical works, is a tragedy that ends in the death of a couple; Richard Strauss's wonderful song cycle is a farewell to a life well lived in a happy marriage.
Róbert Farkas studied choral conducting and conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, and completed his studies in Berlin. He has been the chief conductor of our orchestra since 2021.