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The most exclusive operetta concert experience at one the of most exclusive venues in Doha! The audience will be entertained by the legendary melodies of the second well known Hungarian – after soccer player Ferenc Puskas –, Emmerich Kalman! They say, no minute goes by in the world without a melody of him, born 133 years ago, being heard either on stage, on television, on the radio, at a concert or gala. And most often, no doubt, it is the melodies of the The Csardas Princess (aka Die Csardasfürstin) one hears, the one with which the composer won the first place among leading composers of the era. And, in 2015, there’s a special occasion to celebrate the composer and his best piece: The Csardas Princess premiered exactly 100 years ago! The concert will also feature the beloved melodies of other Kalman works, Countess Maritza, The Bayadere, The Circus Princess, etc. – and also songs by other popular Hungaria operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Paul Ábrahám, Jenő Huszka, Albert Szirmai, in a genuine Viennese, Parisian, Oriental and obviously Hungarian spirit. The visuals of the show are made unique by breath taking compositions and animated effects, while the organizers are planning to employ outstanding scenery, lighting and sound that fit a real high scale theatrical show. The performing artists will be accompanied by Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre’s symphonic orchestra, led by Krisztián Balassa, and the ballet ensemble. This gala show, in the direction of KERO®, will surely be one of the highlights of the year, with its exciting visuals, original concept and elegant atmosphere. History of the Hungarian operetta, so to say, began with Western imports. After the international success, domestic stages also presented the works of Strauss, Zeller, Millöcker and Offenbach. Then after a while music teachers, talented conductors and translators of the foreign textbooks came out with a bold suggestion: to create an original Hungarian operetta. Thus the first Hungarian operetta, Deréky Antal's and Konti József's 'Eleven Ördög' was born on the 3rd of December, 1885. This attempt was well received and seven years later, the first critically acclaimed operetta, Huszka Jenő's Bob Herceg was born. The audience and the critics jointly hailed this piece as the first real original Hungarian great operetta. After a couple of decades this little infant started to develop into much more, into a real Hungarian speciality, into Hungarian operetta. It's enough to mention the names of the big three: Lehár, Kálmán and Ábrahám are all world famous operetta composers. But alongside the big three there are still many exceptional Hungarian talents, who became popular in the twentieth century, many of whom gave us evergreen operetta hits. BUDAPEST OPERETTA AND MUSICAL THEATRE DIRECTOR GENERAL: György Lőrinczy The Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre is one of the oldest and most successful theatres of the Hungarian capital. In 1923 the city of Budapest decided to give the genre of operetta a home of its own. With the opening of the Metropolitan Operetta Theatre the Hungarian capital saw the beginning of the "silver operetta" period by giving a new and permanent home to the genre. In the history of the theatre the most important thing was to cherish the traditions of the classic operetta while enriching it with modern artistic solutions. Next to Vienna Budapest is the other capital of the operetta and anyone who comes to our theatre can see the high quality of the genre represented here. Nowadays it functions as a musical theatre with two divisions: Hungarian operettas and their modern descendants, that is contemporary Hungarian musicals on its program on the one hand, and musicals based on literary or historical topics aimed at a younger generation on the other. More than five hundred shows are performed here annually, in front of an audience of four hundred thousand people, i.e. today it is one of the theatres with the highest number of visitors in Hungary. Operettas of the popular operetta composers Kálmán Emmerich, Franz Lehár, Paul Ábrahám, Jenő Huszka, Albert Szirmai, Szabolcs Fényes and works of their today's followers, the successful music composers Claude Michel Schönberg, Gerard Presgurvic, Sylvester Lévay, Ferenc Jávori, Tibor Kocsák, Béla Szakcsi Lakatos and Levente Szörényi are all presented here on stage with performances such as The Csárdás Princess, Countess Maritza, The Gypsy Princess, Ball at the Savoy, Baroness Lili, Mike the Magnate, Miss Saigon, Rebecca, Romeo and Juliet, Elisabeth, Mozart! and the world musical version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The creative teams of the theatre arrange one co production after another with partner theatres in St. Petersburg, Bucharest, Yekaterinburg, Prague, Salzburg and Erfurt; the theatre company is regularly on tour, performing in numerous countries and cities in Europe and Asia with operettas, musical productions and gala performances. In the autumn of 2011 the Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre won against numerous international rivals and obtained the performing rights for the musical The Beauty and the Beast for German speaking countries. The Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre, which has been awarded the title “Superbrands” for its excellent achievements (2012, 2013, 2014), organizes top ranking international music competitions regularly, such as the Kálmán Emmerich International Operetta Musical Composer Competition in 2012 as a sequel to the Ferenc Lehár International Operetta Competition and the Sylvester Lévay International Musical Singing Competition. In 2013 the Hungarian operetta became ‘Hungaricum’ and it is also among the National Treasures of Hungary.