Le bourgeois gentilhomme (The Bourgeois Gentleman)

This ballet's plot is inspired by The Corsair, a famous verse written in 1814 by Lord Byron, who towered over an entire generation of English Romantic poets.

A century ago, the world first encountered this remarkable opus, a work that soon became one of the cornerstones of twentieth-century musical innovation. Premiered in 1926, the singspiel is a milestone in Hungarian music history: its composer, Zoltán Kodály, fulfilled his aspiration to elevate Hungarian folk song of ancient origin to the same status as classical music, by virtue of its equivalent values, placing it on the stage of the nation’s Opera House.

Bartók Béla’s two highly influential stage works explore the dynamics of the relationship between man and woman and the deeper layers of their personalities, as presented by creators who, through a fusion of tradition and innovation, reveal the possibilities inherent in these works for 21st-century audiences.