Boldog Karácsonyt Budapest!

Mozart was insatiably in love with life. He embraced everything considered “sinful”: wine, cards, billiards. And his passion extended to musical ornaments: flowery acciaccaturas, trills, cadences others dared not risk, and chromatic runs. But there can be no doubt the main objects of his desire were women. He dedicated several of his masterpieces to one or other of his lovers, who were thus immortalised by these concert and opera arias.

After first emerging as a representative of Hungarian bedroom pop in the early 2010s, guitarist/singer/songwriter Noémi Barkóczi moved beyond the world of lo-fi to became a popular performer on stages and at festivals across the country with her increasingly distinctive guitar playing, heartfelt lyrics, and well-developed arrangements.

János Arany’s epic poem is an enduring classic of Hungarian literature, with turns of phrases that are still parts of common parlance, and a hero who has been revived in opera, animated film, physical theatre production and monodrama.