Levente Molnár, the internationally recognized, 36-year-old opera singer from the picturesque Gyergyóremete (Remetea) municipality in Szeklerland, will perform for the first time in his career on the stage of the San Francisco Opera. He will appear in the brand-new production of the Mozart masterpiece The Marriage of Figaro that premieres on the 11th of October. The baritone has been cast as Count Almaviva in the spectacle.
Molnár’s first illustrious appearance was in 2007, when he became a finalist in the Cardiff Singer of the World competition. One year later, he was invited to sing at Covent Garden, and from 2009 he worked for five years as one of the leading baritones of the Bayerische Staatsoper’s company in Munich. In the past few years, he has performed in Berlin, Vienna, Bordeaux, London, Tokyo, and Madrid and has worked with world-famous conductors such as Marco Armiliato, Ascher Fisch, Zubin Mehta, and Kent Nagano. He has already sung in two main roles at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and in 2016 his work and artistic excellence was honored with the highest musical distinction given by Hungary, the Franz Liszt award.
For its 2019–2020 season, the San Francisco Opera will stage three operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, the first of these being The Marriage of Figaro. Molnár is well acquainted with the role of Almaviva – he has performed this part in Gent and Budapest. As he recounted about the premiering spectacle, it is staged in a very intriguing and innovative way: The story is transposed to the United States and has hints of American history as well.
“The three Mozart operas of the season are grasped as a trilogy that takes the audience throughout different eras. The Marriage of Figaro happens in 1780, but Don Giovanni takes place in a dystopian future, around 2090,” Molnár said.
In The Marriage of Figaro, the artist will perform alongside several renowned opera singers, including Michael Sumuel, member of the San Francisco Opera Company, and Jeanine De Bique, a singer from Barbados who will also be making her debut on this stage. And there is yet another Hungarian artist working on the spectacle: The orchestra will be conducted by Henrik Nánási.
“I am really proud that the two of us are Hungarians in this production, so far from our homeland. I am looking forward to the premier and the following shows of the season. The audience in New York was a pleasant disappointment to what I expected; they were open and not afraid at all to applaud. I wonder how it will it be on the West Coast,” Molnár said. Besides the premiere on the October 11, he will be appearing on stage seven more times in San Francisco.
Title image: The brand-new production of The Marriage of Figaro premiers on the 11th of October at the San Francisco Opera
Source: sfopera.com
