Éva Marton International Opera Studio Begins Operations in Budapest

The Éva Marton International Opera Studio, a two-year professional training program of the Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest, has started its first semester with the participation of four Hungarian and one Austrian singer.

The studio provides professional training for young opera singers following their university studies and offers them the opportunity to broaden their stage experience in the early stages of their careers.

Opera studios are needed around the world because the big opera houses also place a very heavy burden on young artists, and music academies cannot prepare them for these challenges.

Opera studios can provide support for these young artists,” emphasized Szilveszter Ókovács, General Director of the Hungarian State Opera House.

Opera studios are a good place for special learning situations and exercises, where artists with experience in the given techniques can introduce students to special tricks of the trade, among other things.

Opera singer Éva Marton, the main patron of the studio, and co-founder of the Friends of Hungary Foundation (MOBA) and publisher of news portals, Hungary Today and Ungarn Heute, highlighted that the new institution provides valuable training. “It is very important for young people to have a strong stage education after graduating from the Liszt Academy or other universities, even abroad.”

Five young singers, Norbert Balázs (baritone), Gabriella Rea Fenyvesi (soprano), Anija Lombard (soprano), Vivienne Ortan (mezzo-soprano) and Botond Pál (tenor), will start their studies in the first year of the Opera Studio, as a result of the two-round audition in June 2024.

During the first semester of the four, Éva Marton and other prominent singers will work with the students, preparing them in master classes and individual sessions to learn specific roles.

The timetable also includes role practice, stage practice, movement, opera history and interpretation, as well as language training.

At the end of the year, the students will present their artistic knowledge in an exam performance, and Haydn’s Armida will be performed in Budapest and in the United States in a joint production with the San Diego Opera.

In January 2024, Éva Marton announced that she will launch an opera studio at the Opera House under her patronage from September this year. The Hungarian State Opera House has previously run a scholarship program and an opera studio with similar aims, but due to lack of infrastructure and funding, these initiatives died out by the end of the 2000s.

Via MTI; Featured image via Wikipedia/PDXdj