Lily's Blog

The Hungarian State Opera House is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. It first opened to the public on the 27th September 1884.

It seems 1884 was a good year for creating cultural institutions. A little later in 1884 – on the 1st November, the GAA, (Ireland’s biggest sports organisation) was founded.

The Hungarian State Opera House is a beautiful neo-Renaissance building located in central Pest, on Andrássy út, (út is the hungarian for street). Designed by Ybl, a major figure of 19th century Hungarian architecture, it is a richly-decorated building and is considered one of the architect’s masterpieces.

In size and capacity, the Budapest Opera House is not among the world’s greatest opera houses. But in terms of beauty and the quality of acoustics, it is considered to be amongst the best in the world.

In front of the building are statues of Erkel, (composer of the Hungarian national anthem, first music director of the Opera House and founder of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, in other words a busy man!), and of Liszt, (the best known Hungarian composer).

The three of us really enjoyed our night at the Opera House, last night.

We went to see Nabucco by Verdi.

Nabucco follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nabucco. The best-known number from this opera is the ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves’.

We had great seats in a box near the centre. (These were our neighbours). Just to give you an idea, three tickets for excellently positioned box seats cost €38 in total!

I’d hazard a guess that as the Irish boys plotted and planned in that upstairs room in Hayes’s Hotel, 125 years ago, they didn’t realise that they were following hot on the heels of the Hungarians. And vice versa.

1884 was the year that two very different cultural institutions were formed, two cultural institutions which have stood the test of time in their respective countries.

Here’s to another great 125 years for both.