Hungarian State Opera
The building at No. 22 is the Hungarian State Opera. It was built
between 1875 and 1884 to the designs of Miklós Ybl
in Italian neo-Renaissance style.
The balcony on the
façade has baluster railings, with an arcaded driveway
underneath. In the niches on both sides of the driveway
stand the statues (by Alajos Stróbl) of
Ferenc Liszt
the most famous Hungarian composer of the nineteenth
century, and Ferenc Erkel, creator of Hungarian
national opera and the first director of the Opera
House. The statues on the corner projections, between
the Corinthian half columns, represent Terpsichore,
Erato, Thalia and Melpomene, the Muses of dance
love-poetry, comedy and tragedy. The vaults of the
driveway are ornamented with sgraffiti. The statues of
great composers on the façade were renovated in 1966;
these represent from left to right : Monteverdi, Scarlatti,
Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, Donizetti, Glinka,
Wagner, Verdi, Gounod, Bizet, Moussorgsky, Tchaikovsky,
Moniuszko and Smetana. The allegorical
frescoes in the vestibule were painted by Bertalan
Székely, the ones on the ceiling of the main staircase
by Mór Than, the stone carvings were made by Alajos
Stróbl, Gyula Donáth and György Kiss. On the landing
of the staircase stands the statue of Miklós Ybl. The
fresco in centre of the ceiling of the three-storey high,
horseshoe-shaped auditorium was painted by
Károly Lotz: it represents a serene Olympus with
Apollo in the centre. The ceremonial box is decorated
with Gyula Donáth's dancing figures, and the ceiling
of the salon behind it with Mór Than's paintings. The
43-metre (47 yds) deep stage can be lifted or lowered
4 metres (13 ft.) by means of a hydraulic mechanism.
The auditorium has three tiers with 1,300 seats.
In addition to the Opera House inaugurated in
1884, the capital has a second opera house, the Erkel
Theatre (in Köztársaság tér, off Rákóczi út). This
theatre, originally completed in 191 l, and now seating
2,500 spectators, was rebuilt as a modern opera house
and concert hall in the course of reconstruction work
after the war. An ensemble, well-known all over Europe,
performs in both opera houses.