Máté Balogh: Winter, or the Ear of the Wall
Musical play for solo voices, mixed choir and chamber orchestra
15 October 2025 | 7.00 pm
Liszt Academy Solti Hall

#Opera
Ticket prices
4000
-
6900
Ft
Performed by:
Katalin Ladik, Eszter Balogh
Libretto:
Renátó Fehér
Featuring:
Weiner Ensemble (artistic director: Csaba Pálfi), Pax et Bonum Chamber Choir (choirmaster: Boldizsár Kiss)
Production design:
Hanna Erős
Assistant to the director:
Ráhel Solténszky
Director:
Máté Szilvay
Part concert, part theatre, fusing a musical play with an oratorio and factual elements with fictional ones, this piece is set in the basement of the Budapest Embassy of Czechoslovakia, at the turn of 1944 and 1945. For months, Emanuel Zima (his surname means ‘winter’), the former caretaker of the embassy and his son, Josef gave shelter here to Jews who were persecuted by the German and Hungarian Nazis. As it recounts the events, Winter, or the Ear of the Wall speaks of remembering as an act forming individual and community identity. What is remembering and what does it mean, for an individual or a community, to keep silent about something? What does it mean to be a hero, a survivor, a victim? As they focus on the complex relationships between living as an individual and as part of a collective, Máté Balogh’s music, the text delivered by the narrator, and the choral movements that feature diverse techniques explore the lyrical and dramatic possibilities of Renátó Fehér’s libretto.
This production of the Liszt Fest is presented by Müpa Budapest as a joint event with the Liszt Academy.
Recommendations
14. 10. 2025
Máté Balogh: Winter, or the Ear of the Wall
Part concert, part theatre, fusing a musical play with an oratorio and factual elements with fictional ones, this piece is set in the basement of the Budapest Embassy of Czechoslovakia, at the turn of 1944 and 1945. For months, Emanuel Zima (his...
More info
18. 10. 2025
Andrés Orozco-Estrada | Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
János Palojtay, a leading performing artist of his generation, will play two works by Liszt that each meet the description of a concerto. He will be partnered by one of the longest-standing German ensembles, the Gürzenich-Orchester of Cologne,...
More info
19. 10. 2025
Compagnia Finzi Pasca: TITIZÉ – A Venetian Dream
True to the language of dreams that brings back fleeting images, allusions and mirages, TITIZÉ is a show that transports the viewer into a rarefied and surreal universe. Its narrative, seemingly fragmented but deeply evocative, unfolds in a...
More info