It was with this highly successful production that the Budapest Wagner Days began in 2006, and it has been performed from time to time ever since to meet popular demand. Luckily, posterity has not respected the composer's wish that Bayreuth be the only fitting place to perform this "Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage”, based on Schopenhauer's ideas of suffering, self-renouncement and redemption: the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall conveys the magical sound of the Wagnerian orchestra and this acoustic marvel in unparalleled fashion. As a musician with a native understanding of the Wagner idiom, Adam Fischer conducted two Wagner productions at the Bayreuth Festival for years. True to the traditions of the Budapest Wagner Days, he once again works here with world-renowned Wagnerian singers in the highly acclaimed staging by Magdolna Parditka and Alexandra Szemerédy. Among the finest dramatic sopranos working today, Violeta Urmana has demonstrated her qualities in lead operatic roles under conductors including Claudio Abbado, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez and Lorin Maazel. In the title role, German tenor Peter Seiffert built his career as a Wagnerian singer in Bayreuth from the mid-1990s, and featured in the title role on Daniel Barenboim's Grammy Award-winning recording of Tannhäuser.

German-language performance, with Hungarian subtitles.

Artistic director and conductor: Adam Fischer

Performers:
Lauri Vasar - Amfortas
Ferenc Cserhalmi - Titurel
Albert Pesendorfer - Gurnemanz
Peter Seiffert - Parsifal
Jürgen Linn - Klingsor
Violeta Urmana - Kundry
Péter Kiss - First Grail Knight
Ákos Ambrus - Second Grail Knight
Zita Váradi, Ildikó Szakács, Krisztina Simon, Gabi Gál, Eszter Wierdl, Gabriella Balga - Flowermaidens
Atala Schöck - Voice from Above
members of the Wiener Sängerknaben - First and second squire, Zoltán Megyesi - Third squire, József Mukk - Fourth squire, Bence Vas - Parsifal as a child

Featuring:
The Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir (choirmaster: Zoltán Pad)
The Hungarian Radio Children's Choir (choirmaster: László Matos)
Hungarian National Choir (choirmaster: Csaba Somos)
Zoltán Csere, Zoltán Katonka, Gábor Bora, Gábor Vida - Guards of Amfortas

Creators:
Magdolna Parditka, Alexandra Szemerédy - direction
set design
Károly Györgyfalvai - lighting
János Kovács - assistant conductor
Orsolya Fajger - chief musical assistant
Dóra Bizják, Friedrich Suckel, László Bartal, Richard Lewis - musical assistants
Albert Mányik - Assistant to the director

This recording was made at a concert held at Müpa Budapest on 21 June 2017.

Admission to the programme is free of charge, but subject to prior registration on our website.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest