CASTJános ValuskaZsolt HajaHagelmayer / NarratorTünde SzalontayMrs PflaumAdrienn MikschTündeTünde SzabókiA peasant womanMária FarkasrétiProfessorAndrás HábetlerMan in broadcloth coat / Senior officerKrisztián CserDirectorIstván HorváthThe Prince’s aideBalázs Papp univ. stud.NadabánLőrinc KósaMádaiAndrás KissVolentJános SzerekovánTicket inspectorZoltán Bátki FazekasAn officerAttila ErdősMenBenjámin BeeriNinh Duc Hoang LongGergely Halász univ.stud.Bence PatakiGergely UjváriBotond PálDonát VargaOrchestraHungarian State Opera OrchestraChorusHungarian State Opera ChorusTextKinga KeszthelyiMari MezeiConductorKálmán SzennaiDirectorBence VargaSetsBotond DevichCostumeKató HuszárLightsSándor BaumgartnerArtistic assistantsSylvie GáborAndrea ValkaiMusical assistantsPálma HidegkutiJean KláraBálint ZsoldosAssistant ConductorLevente ZsírosChorus MasterGábor CsikiPéter Eötvös’s new opera takes us to a bare, grey world of an unknown yet familiar small town, and reveals the tragi-comedy world of the protagonist, newspaper delivery man, János Valuska. In the tradition of the Shakespearean fool, Valuska is different from the townspeople. He is an innocent, infatuated with astronomy and man’s position in the universe. The arrival in town of a circus - with, as star attraction, the world’s largest taxidermied whale - has explosive consequences.With its world premiere on 2 December 2023, Valuska is an important event for the Hungarian State Opera and, more widely, for all those interested in opera today. Péter Eötvös, the internationally acclaimed composer who celebrates his 80th birthday in January 2024, was commissioned by the Hungarian State Opera in 2018 to compose his 13th opera and his first in Hungarian. It is based on the 1989 novel The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai, who won the International Man Booker Prize in 2015. ‘Valuska, a young man with a pure heart, becomes a victim of a manipulative society in the shadow of a stuffed whale’ says Péter Eötvös. He has transformed the novel into a performance that combines several genres of opera and theatre with the grotesque. This is a bare, grey world but one with a lot of humour, where the surreal turns painfully believable.