"Following the former traditions the miracle happens year by year on the last Saturday of the carnival season: the stage and the auditorium of the Opera House transforms to the most beautiful ballroom of Hungary. The ball is opened by more than a hundred debutante dancers after a short opera programme, then comes the 'Alles Walzer' so that people dance till dawn.Click here for Opera Ball Official Site
Information and ticket reservation:
Organising Bureau of the Opera Ball
H-1065 Budapest Hajós u. 13-15.
Tel: 00-36-1/302-3906
Fax: 00-36-1/302-5861
Short History of the Budapest Opera Ball:
A social event has been reborn where the leading persons of the middle class that is to say the Hungarian culture, knowledge, power and money meet one another each year. The opera ball had been first organised in 1886 and, after an interval of 62 years, it has revived in 1996. Representing the 111 years' tradition, it has become the largest and most important meeting of the participants of the Hungarian public life winning the keenest attention of the public opinion already the first time. Ticket reservation (box or table tickets in a special hall) at the Organising Bureau of the Opera Ball.
After an interval of 62 years, our company organised the Budapest Opera Ball on the 17th February 1996. Among the star guests of the first ten years were Montserrat Caballé, Ornella Muti, Sascha Hehn, Y. Nesterenko, Walter Berry, Heinz Zednik, Katia Ricciarelli, Patrizio Buanne, Catherine Deneuve, Katarina Witt and Gina Lollobrigida. Besides international guests, the most famous Hungarian opera singers helped the success of the shows.
The social, business and political importance of the Budapest Opera Ball strengthens every year. By now, the number of international guests attending the Opera Ball exceeds any other balls in the country.
Among our distinguished visitors we had the honour to welcome M. Barre, former Prime Minister of France accompanied by his wife; Gilberte Beaux and the head of the Rotschild Dinasty, Baron Guy de Rothschild, as leading personalities of the French economic branch, Thierry de Montbrial, representing the French cultural and political life, Jürgen Köppen, Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Hungary, Brigitte Zypries, federal minister of justice and Otto Wiesheu, bavarian minister of economy, Dr. Dieter Böhmdorfer, former Austrian minister of economy.
Source: Budapestinfo.hu
19.02.2009