Singer

Join us as we usher in a new season and celebrate opera, music, the marvel of the human voice, creativity, and the many-layered artistry of a genre that delights and stirs all the senses.

Iván Fischer has renewed The Magic Flute. Mozart’s opera transports us into a world of enchantment, allowing an escape from the daily grind. Join us for tasty hors d'oeuvres before the curtain rises, served in an atmosphere created by fashion designer Eszter Cselényi and unmistakably evoking the world of Mozart himself. After the opera, guests of the BFO and Müpa Budapest are invited to an informal gathering to meet the artists and creators participating in the performance. Selfies allowed! Gone will be the distance between stage and audience, and art will become tangible. An evening of connections and once-in-a-lifetime encounters.

Opera and Reception: Celebration in the Realm of the Queen of the Night

Müpa Budapest

Celebration in the Realm of the Queen of the Night – Reception

The rays of sun chase night away.” If there is an opera for everyone, an opera about the very essence of life, it’s The Magic Flute. For the first time since 2015, Iván Fischer will once again bring to the stage Mozart’s philosophical tale, where good and bad, light and darkness, right and wrong, courage and fear, wisdom and superstition, vengeance and mercy are juxtaposed. The opera, which is Mozart’s last work for the stage, is an initiation ceremony and a moral tale about the journey to adulthood. “It’s an inscrutable work of magical power,” says Fischer, who is particularly awed by the opera’s optimism, humor, playfulness, fairy tale-like quality, deep humanism, or, in a single word, complexity. The international cast includes Mozart specialists from the world’s leading opera houses, several of whom are already familiar to the BFO’s audiences.

Fischer and The Magic Flute

An exciting concert for us, offering plenty of creative freedom for individual orchestra members and fresh musical perspectives. We welcome Jörg Widmann, a versatile artist, to the conductor's podium, as he is both a soloist and composer of some of the pieces. He once gave such a wonderful answer to the question of how important live music is that "especially in the age of technical reproducibility and the accessibility of music anytime, anywhere in the world, the human being singing and playing on stage in the moment, without a safety net, is able to captivate and fascinate us more than ever.

Jörg Widmann, Ilian Garnetz, Sarah Maria Sun, Barbara Bode

Bamberger Symphoniker

An exciting concert for us, offering plenty of creative freedom for individual orchestra members and fresh musical perspectives. We welcome Jörg Widmann, a versatile artist, to the conductor's podium, as he is both a soloist and composer of some of the pieces. He once gave such a wonderful answer to the question of how important live music is that "especially in the age of technical reproducibility and the accessibility of music anytime, anywhere in the world, the human being singing and playing on stage in the moment, without a safety net, is able to captivate and fascinate us more than ever." We look forward to playing with him and begin this cleverly conceived program with an orchestral journey to Scotland, where we capture the legendary landscape of a Hebridean island with the atmosphere of "salt air, cod liver oil, and seagulls" that Mendelssohn envisioned. 

Visiting Fürth

City Theatre Fürth

The Minguet Quartet's programs are not just chamber music of the highest caliber, but always also an invitation to the audience to engage in dialogue and participation. The four musicians have already committed themselves to this with their ensemble's name: their namesake is the Spanish writer and music educator Pablo Minguet, who strove in his writings to provide access to the fine arts for all. The fourth chamber concert also features works from different eras in dialogue with each other: the concert begins in a truly classical style with one of the last quartets by Joseph Haydn, the inventor of the string quartet; at the end, we hear Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 2, nothing less than a milestone in New Music – the transition to atonality. Tradition and modernity also converge in the works of the Romantics Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann, as they are performed in the transcription by Aribert Reimann, one of the most distinguished composers of the second half of the 20th century, who died in 2024. The quartet also enters into dialogue with soprano Sarah Maria Sun, who is also known for her profound program ideas and as a specialist in contemporary music: she has already sung more than 400 world premieres.

Dialogues

CityPalais

"A reinvention of music theatre" – thus Klangforum Wien’s first concertante-performative meta-opera, an energetically charged foray through the operatic literature of the past 100 years, was hailed enthusiastically. Starting with Zemlinsky, via Sciarrino and Saunders, all the way to Xenakis, the spectrum covers nothing less than love in all its potentialities and impossibilities. Together with the Needcompany, the musicians present themselves as a lively collective of performers, wholeheartedly and powerfully on stage. Italian premiere.

transart Festival: Amopera

Ex-Masten, Bolzano

Works by Paul Hindemith, Lisa Streich and Benjamin Scheuer

Hindemith-Award

Verein für Baukultur Kiel e.V.

A woman finds herself on the verge of death when a seemingly endless cascade of questions comes pouring out of her, all directed toward a beloved, coveted and absent Other. With these are memories of a life well lived, of the longing for love and sex, of the faltering of her yearning and the tragedy of death behind it. The woman breaks down into four different facets of her own personality, each depicted by a different performer, representing the various perspectives and viewpoints of one individual. What forms is a web of interconnections between seeing and being seen, touching and being touched, feeling and being felt, understanding and being understood. It is a sensual play about sex, the body, love and death – with a surprising ending. LASH is the first opera by celebrated German-British composer Rebecca Saunders. With it, she is creating a work about the base, existential experiences of the human body that we spend our lives in and with which we experience and comprehend the world around us. The work is based on the strikingly pictorial texts of video artist and writer Ed Atkins.

Lash

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Our honorary conductor Iván Fischer is a guarantee for unusual programmes. This time, he and the Konzerthausorchester will perform works by four composers who were ostracised and persecuted by the National Socialists and whose works shaped the avant-garde of the interwar period. Paul Hindemith, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler found their way to the United States via detours, but Erwin Schulhoff was interned in Prague, deported and died of tuberculosis in a camp in Bavaria.

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Iván Fischer

Konzerthaus Berlin

With Luciano Berio's song cycle Folk Songs, a tribute to the mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian, and two characteristic and groundbreaking compositions from Pierre Boulez's oeuvre, the festival debut at the Tokyo Spring Festival marks the 100th anniversary of these two landmark composers. In addition, Philippe Manoury has developed a deep relationship with Japanese musical life. His Passacaille pour Tokyo is a reimagination of musical form in the spirit of Boulez.

Tokyo Harusai Spring Festival: Boulez & Berio 100

Tokyo Bunka Kaikan

"A reinvention of music theatre" – thus Klangforum Wien’s first concertante-performative meta-opera, an energetically charged foray through the operatic literature of the past 100 years, was hailed enthusiastically. Starting with Zemlinsky, via Sciarrino and Saunders, all the way to Xenakis, the spectrum covers nothing less than love in all its potentialities and impossibilities. Together with the Needcompany, the musicians present themselves as a lively collective of performers, wholeheartedly and powerfully on stage.

EPSG:4326

Amopera

Daegu Opera House

Wiener Konzerthaus

Hong Kong Arts Festival: Amopera

Hong Kong Cultural Center

Camerata Pacifica artists are representative of the world’s finest, bringing to our stage their highly individual personalities for dynamic performances of music that span the huge, eclectic range of the chamber music repertoire.

Camerata Pacifica Presents: Morciano, Gershwin, Weill, Debussy, Schoenberg

Colburn School

“The rays of sun chase night away.” If there is an opera for everyone, an opera about the very essence of life, it’s The Magic Flute. For the first time since 2015, Iván Fischer will once again bring to the stage Mozart’s philosophical tale, where good and bad, light and darkness, right and wrong, courage and fear, wisdom and superstition, vengeance and mercy are juxtaposed. The opera, which is Mozart’s last work for the stage, is an initiation ceremony and a moral tale about the journey to adulthood. “It’s an inscrutable work of magical power,” says Fischer, who is particularly awed by the opera’s optimism, humor, playfulness, fairy tale-like quality, deep humanism, or, in a single word, complexity. The international cast includes Mozart specialists from the world’s leading opera houses, several of whom are already familiar to the BFO’s audiences.

“The Magic Flute is a childhood experience for everyone that accompanies them throughout their lives. Because this opera speaks to both children and adults.” Fischer shares his own experiences, as he and his brother participated in a production of the work held in the Opera House as children. Much later, the Festival Orchestra’s opera performances also traditionally began with a semi-staged production of The Magic Flute at the Liszt Academy in the early 1990s.

Winterfestspiele Baden-Baden: Fischer and Die Zauberflöte

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

“The rays of sun chase night away.” If there is an opera for everyone, an opera about the very essence of life, it’s The Magic Flute. For the first time since 2015, Iván Fischer will once again bring to the stage Mozart’s philosophical tale, where good and bad, light and darkness, right and wrong, courage and fear, wisdom and superstition, vengeance and mercy are juxtaposed. The opera, which is Mozart’s last work for the stage, is an initiation ceremony and a moral tale about the journey to adulthood. “It’s an inscrutable work of magical power,” says Fischer, who is particularly awed by the opera’s optimism, humor, playfulness, fairy tale-like quality, deep humanism, or, in a single word, complexity. The international cast includes Mozart specialists from the world’s leading opera houses, several of whom are already familiar to the BFO’s audiences.

Vicenza Opera Festival: Fischer and The Magic Flute

Teatro Olimpico

Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra present Mozart's Magic Flute in a semi-staged format which Fischer developed at his opera festival in Vicenza. He traveled to the city to work on his "third way": a new unity of sound and directing where the ear guides the body. After last year’s Don Giovanni, Fischer is now conducting an opera at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden for the second time.

The Magic Flute

Surrounded by vintage charm and automotive history, the Pantheon becomes the backdrop for a dynamic concert program centered around music and mobility. Because it's not just car enthusiasts who will find something to enjoy: the journey extends beyond the asphalt onto railways and cycle paths.

Soprano

Sarah Maria Sun

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 23 - Dec 20, 2026

Winterfestspiele Baden-Baden: Fischer and Die Zauberflöte · Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra

Oct 25 - Dec 20, 2026

Vicenza Opera Festival: Fischer and The Magic Flute · Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra

18 - 20 Dec, 2026

The Magic Flute · Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

May 30, 2027

Kagel, Honegger, Ligeti, Berg, Ragués Pujol, Adams traffic · Basel Sinfonietta

Past events

Sep 9, 2026

Opera and Reception: Celebration in the Realm of the Queen of the Night · Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra

Sep 9, 2026

Celebration in the Realm of the Queen of the Night – Reception · Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra

Future and recently performed repertoire

Singer in Der Schwanendreher by Hindemith

Konzerthausorchester Berlin

Papagena in The Magic Flute by Mozart

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Singer in Pierrot lunaire by Schönberg

Colburn School

Singer in Der Abschiedsbrief by Weill

Colburn School

Singer in Six Songs by Schumann

Duisburger Philharmoniker

Singer in Selected Songs by Weill

Konzerthausorchester Berlin

Singer in Die stille Stadt by Weill

Colburn School

Singer in It Never Was You by Weill

Colburn School

Singer in Five Ophelia Songs by Brahms

Duisburger Philharmoniker

Singer in Passacaille pour Tokyo by Manoury

Klangforum Wien

Singer in Folk Songs for mezzo-soprano and orchestra by Berio

Klangforum Wien

Singer in Le Marteau sans maître by Boulez

Klangforum Wien

Singer in The Hebrides or Fingal's Cave by Bartholdy

Bamberger Symphoniker

Singer in Paraphrase on Mendelssohn's Wedding March by Widmann

Bamberger Symphoniker

Singer in Essay on the Fugue by Widmann

Bamberger Symphoniker

Papagena in The Magic Flute, K. 620 by Mozart

Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra

About

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Winterfestspiele Baden-Baden: Fischer and Die Zauberflöte · Budapest Festival Orchestra

Vicenza Opera Festival: Fischer and The Magic Flute · Budapest Festival Orchestra

Opera and Reception: Celebration in the Realm of the Queen of the Night · Budapest Festival Orchestra

Celebration in the Realm of the Queen of the Night – Reception · Budapest Festival Orchestra

Budapest Festival Orchestra