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

The last cheerful sound before the world war, bringing harmony to a seemingly irreconcilable conflict and a groundbreaking string octet: this is the emotional rollercoaster offered by the Budapest Festival Orchestra to audiences in Saanen. A few months after composing his Divertimento, an unimpeded piece invoking also the looming atmosphere of war, Bartók emigrated to America. Iván Fischer reflects on the horrors of that very war, while exploring how, despite all this, we can still admire German culture. The answer is provided, among other things, by Mendelssohn’s piece concluding the concert, which is still a hallmark work in octet literature. In the cantata of Fischer, also the conductor of the concert, the soloists will be Gergely Csikota, the orchestra’s well-traveled trumpet player, and soprano Mirella Hagen, whose voice was praised by Bachtrack as “effortless and ethereal”.

Tour: Menuhin Festival Gstaad – Chamber Concert

St. Mauritius Church Saanen

The sorceress Alcina has everything: power, money, respect. She is loved and feared. She is stunningly beautiful, astute, and highly dangerous. But does all that make her happy? She is in love with Ruggiero and is forced continually to lie to him to keep him by her. Does Alcina know at all true affection, or is her life only illusion and deception?

Alcina

Theater Bonn Opera House

Siegfried, the son of Sieglinde, who was saved in Die Walküre, and Siegmund, who was killed, grows up on the edge of the world with Alberich's brother Mime. Mime hopes that Siegfried will fight for the powerful ring for him. But the ignorant Siegfried turns against his foster father, and after he has taken the ring from the killed giant Fafner, he also kills Mime. Guided by a forest bird, he awakens the sleeping Brünnhilde. Now the two could save Wotan's world of gods – if love weren't stronger than political reason. »Siegfried« is the most theatrical part of Wagner's tetralogy »The Ring of the Nibelung«. Director Willy Decker therefore created his Dresden stage cosmos as a theater within a theatre. However, those who flaunt themselves on the stage and who take the position of observer

Siegfried

Semperoper Dresden

“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.

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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.

Soprano

Mirella Hagen

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

Dec 19, 2026

Christmas Oratorio · Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

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

First Lady in The Magic Flute by Mozart

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Morgana in Alcina by Handel

Theater Bonn

Singer in Christmas Oratorio by Bach

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Stimme eines Waldvogels in Siegfried by Wagner

Semperoper Dresden

Singer in Divertimento, Sz 113, BB 118 by Bartok

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Singer in Eine deutsch-Yiddische Kantate (A German-Yiddish Cantata) by Fischer

Budapest Festival Orchestra

First Lady in The Magic Flute, K. 620 by Mozart

Budapest Festival Orchestra

About

Mirella Hagen hasn't added a bio

Soprano

Mirella Hagen

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

Dec 19, 2026

Christmas Oratorio · Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

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

First Lady in The Magic Flute by Mozart

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Morgana in Alcina by Handel

Theater Bonn

Singer in Christmas Oratorio by Bach

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Stimme eines Waldvogels in Siegfried by Wagner

Semperoper Dresden

Singer in Divertimento, Sz 113, BB 118 by Bartok

Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra

Singer in Eine deutsch-Yiddische Kantate (A German-Yiddish Cantata) by Fischer

Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra

First Lady in The Magic Flute, K. 620 by Mozart

Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra

About

Mirella Hagen hasn't added a bio

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

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Budapest Festival Orchestra