Plácido Domingo's first appearance on the stage of the Budapest Opera House was seen by 1214 guests at the Shakespeare Gala on 6 February.
The most outstanding social, artistic and charity event of the season, the Shakespeare Gala featuring Plácido Domingo was seen by an audience of 1214 at the Opera House. Nearly 400 guests enjoyed dinner at the historic building, which was decorated for the event with over 2800 flowers from 7 in the morning until the doors were opened, but the complete organization of the event took half a year. Besides the legendary tenor, the programme featured seventeen opera singers, two ballet soloists, fourteen ballet dancers, a sixty-member choir, a seventy-piece orchestra and three conductors. They performed pieces mostly inspired by William Shakespeare.
The event involving hundreds of people was a complete success. The main gala programme was followed by a charity auction, the proceeds were offered to the Hungarian National Emergency Ambulance Service. The combined amount of the starting bids was 1,243,000 HUF. The items contributed for auction were sold at a value of 3,735,000 HUF. The third charity event took place in this new form, whose aim was to let as many witness the first appearance of Plácido Domingo on the stage of the Opera House as possible. Therefore, unlike in previous years, the auditorium was not transformed into one huge ballroom. The most beautiful spaces in the Opera House gained new functions, the recently opened Feszty Bar became the dancefloor. Through these decisions, all tickets were sold out for the gala, while the original goals of the event were also fulfilled. Premium strategic and mobility partner of the Shakespeare Gala was BMW. Diamond level sponsors: CEMP and Népszabadság; Emerald level sponsor: Heti Válasz; Ruby level sponsors: Képmás, Origo and HG Media; Prominent sponsors: Centrál Media, Marketing&Media, Funzine, PS and Élet&Stílus.
The fourth thematic gala of the Hungarian State Opera is already under organization: the Háry Gala takes place in 2017.
In the morning after the gala, the Opera House once again hosted underpriviliged children. By now it has become a tradition to organize the Breadcrumb Ball, which (with the help of charity organizations) enables a thousand children to enjoy Humperdinck's fairy tale opera, Hansel and Gretel.
Photography: Zsófia Pályi
