Péter Eötvös’s opera Valuska, based on the novel by László Krasznahorkai, winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature, will be performed only three times this season, between 17 and 24 October, at the OPERA's Eiffel Art Studios, following its world premiere in 2023. The work, which won Best World Premiere at last year’s International Opera Awards, features Zsolt Haja, Adrienn Miksch, Tünde Szabóki, and András Hábetler in the leading roles, directed by Bence Varga, with the OPERA ensembles conducted by Kálmán Szennai.
Péter Eötvös received the commission to compose his only Hungarian-language opera from the Hungarian State Opera in 2018. The composer, a recipient of the Order of Saint Stephen and the Kossuth Prize, chose as the basis for his work The Melancholy of Resistance, the 1989 novel by the newly awarded Nobel laureate in Literature, László Krasznahorkai. Despite his advanced illness, Eötvös closely followed the preparations for the premiere and personally attended the world premiere held at the Eiffel Art Studios in December 2023, his last public appearance.
From Krasznahorkai’s somber, surreal novel, which Béla Tarr had previously adapted into the film Werckmeister Harmonies, Eötvös Péter and his co-creators, librettist Mari Mezei and dramaturg Kinga Keszthelyi, sought to create a production that blends the genres of opera and theatre with elements of the grotesque. In Bence Varga’s perceptive staging, the title role of Valuska is performed, as in the premiere, by Zsolt Haja. The other leading roles are sung by Adrienn Miksch (Mrs. Pflaum), Tünde Szabóki (Tünde), Mária Farkasréti (Peasant Woman), András Hábetler (The Professor), Krisztián Cser (Man in the Overcoat, Soldier), and István Horváth (The Director). The Hungarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus are conducted by Kálmán Szennai.
Photo by Attila Nagy
