The Hungarian State Opera is the national opera company of Hungary. Located in Budapest, it is a busy institution, with over 200 operas each calendar year, on top of extensive educational programs, ballet, and musical theatre. The company employs 150 singers, a 200 member orchestra, and a 200 member chorus. Performances take place in the Hungarian State Opera House and the Erkel Theatre. In recent years, the company has also courted controversy, both in choices of casting, and in succumbing to public pressure to end scheduled productions early. History Origin The Hungarian State Opera, or the Royal Hungarian Opera, as it was known until 1945, was founded in 1884 in Budapest. Its first director was Hungarian conductor and composer Ferenc Erkel, whose name now graces the second performance space that the company occupies. The first performance of the company included the first act of Bánk bán by Erkel (considered to be an important, patriotic Hungarian opera), and the first act of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin. From the beginning, the Hungarian State Opera was a large institution, initially employing a total of 475 people, including performers, orchestra players, and varying administrative staff. The Opera House itself, however, was undersized in terms of the number of seats, leading to a shortfall in operating income within the first few years of the company's existence. The shortfall was made up by a significant annual gift from the King. It is suggested that this gift led to the government having an outsized say in all matters related to company operations. Early audiences were made up of the aristocracy and other elites, who did not require excellence of the art on stage. Rather, it was considered a social club. Gustav Mahler In 1888, only four years after the company's founding, a 28-year-old Gustav Mahler became Artistic Director, at a time when the company was on shaky ground, financially, having laid off a quarter of its staff. It seemed an unlikely choice for a Hungarian company, being that Mahler was German, Jewish, with very little experience. Despite this, two of the purported goals under Mahler's leadership was to both make the company a national voice of Hungary, and also to eventually create a homegrown ensemble of Hungarian singers. Mahler did not complete these objectives in the two years he led the company. However, his short stint still led to the first period of acknowledged artistic excellence for the