Hungarian State Opera House
Why is it significant?
Stand on the far pavement of Andrássy út and let your eyes climb the honey-coloured front of the Hungarian State Opera House: the arched carriage porch, the loggia, the balustrade crowded with stone composers. On either side of the door sit two seated statues, Ferenc Erkel and Franz Liszt.
Key Facts
| Place | Hungarian State Opera House |
|---|---|
| Address | Andrássy út 22, 1061 Budapest, Hungary |
| Geo Coordinates | 47.50290, 19.05820 |
| Part of Walk | Budapest's Musical Boulevard: Andrássy Avenue from the Opera to Heroes' Square |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand on the far pavement of Andrássy út and let your eyes climb the honey-coloured front of the Hungarian State Opera House: the arched carriage porch, the loggia, the balustrade crowded with stone composers. On either side of the door sit two seated statues, Ferenc Erkel and Franz Liszt. Remember both faces... this avenue will keep introducing you to them.
The architect was Miklós Ybl, and the building went up between 1875 and 1884. It opened on 27 September 1884, with Emperor Franz Joseph in the royal box. He had paid for a large part of it, and the story goes that he set one condition: Budapest's opera must not be bigger than the Court Opera in Vienna. Ybl kept to the size. What he did not promise was to be less beautiful, and the legend says the emperor noticed.
Inside, the horseshoe auditorium holds around thirteen hundred seats under Károly Lotz's ceiling, a painted Olympus floating above the chandelier. There is gold leaf everywhere, and a long restoration, finished in 2022, cleaned and renewed all of it. Singers love the hall for another reason: its acoustics carry a whisper to the top gallery.
And look at who worked behind that door. Erkel, who wrote the music of the Hungarian national anthem, was the first music director. In 1888 a twenty-eight-year-old conductor from Bohemia took over the house: Gustav Mahler. He insisted on opera sung in Hungarian, threw out lazy habits, and lasted until 1891, when a new aristocratic intendant made his life impossible. After the Second World War, Otto Klemperer led the company for three seasons.
Now turn round. The building facing the Opera, with its ornate facade, is the Drechsler Palace, an early work of Ödön Lechner, built in the 1880s for the pension fund of the state railways and named after a café on its ground floor. For decades it housed the state ballet school, so little dancers crossed this road to rehearse on the great stage. Walk north-east along Andrássy út, and after a few blocks turn right into the long, leafy Liszt Ferenc tér.