TheBudapest Opera Ball (Budapesti Operabál inHungarian,Budapester Opernball inGerman) is an annualHungariansociety event taking place in the building of theBudapest Opera (Operaház) on the last Saturday of the carnival season, usually late February.[1] On this occasion the stage and the auditorium of the Opera is transformed into a huge ballroom. The dress code isevening dress: white tie and tailcoat for men, floor-lengthgowns for women. The ball is opened by more than a hundreddebutante dancers after a show consisting of selectedarias, followed by theAllesWalzer with people dancing until dawn. Recent international guests includeMontserrat Caballé,Ornella Muti,Yevgeny Nesterenko,Walter Berry,Heinz Zednik,Katia Ricciarelli,Patrizio Buanne,Catherine Deneuve,Katarina Witt,Gina Lollobrigida,Daryl Hannah, andGuy de Rothschild. Besides such guests as these, the balls are highlighted by the best-known Hungarianopera singers.
The Opera Ball was first organised on March 2, 1886.[2] Suspended in 1934, it was not revived until 1996. Representing a tradition rooted inAustrian-Hungarian culture of the 1880s, therevival has become the most prestigious meeting point of the participants of the Hungarian public life, fully covered by national media.
In 2011, a charity Gala Concert was substituted for the Opera Ball with as a gesture "of contribution to the work of the Government, the leading institutions and the citizens" to help those Hungarians afflicted by the ongoing financial crisis and the various natural disasters.[3]
