Budapest Operetta coming back

Local TV personality Yigal Ravid will narrate the plots, all of which have more twists and turns than a maze.

By HELEN KAYE
opera 88 (photo credit: Vera Eder)
opera 88
(photo credit: Vera Eder)
When the Budapest Operetta came to Israel last year, people practically came to blows for tickets. If you were one of them, hurry to the box office, because the 80-strong Budapest Operetta is returning to the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center from December 11 to 13 with Operetta Squared. Operetta Squared includes highlights from four of the most-loved operettas in the genre: The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus (the Bat), The Gypsy Princess and The Countess Maritza. Operetta had its heyday in the late 19th century. Its centers were Budapest, Vienna and Paris - so is it any wonder that Gypsy Princess and Maritza, both by Emmerich Kalman, are set in Hungary, that Johann Strauss's Bat is set in Vienna or that Paris is the venue for Franz Lehar's Merry Widow? Local TV personality Yigal Ravid will narrate the plots, all of which have more twists and turns than a maze. Don't worry. Just remember that in operetta, unlike opera, there are no really serious villains, the guys always get the gals in the end and along the way there's dancing, slapstick, more dancing and some truly fine singing. The star of Operetta Squared is a young, saucy and very pretty Russian soprano - Karina Chepurnova. She has won a couple of prestigious vocal competitions and just recently sang with the Budapest Operetta in St. Petersburg at the Mariinsky. Other principals include tenor Daniel Vadasz, buffo baritone Peller Karoly, soprano/violinist Anikó Németh and operetta legend Marika Oszvald. The director is Miklós Gábor Kerenyi, who is also general director of the Operetta, and László Máklary will conduct the Israel Chamber Orchestra.