Plácido Domingo's first appearance on the stage of the Budapest Opera House was seen at the Shakespeare Gala on 6 February. Besides the legendary tenor, the programme featured seventeen opera singers, two ballet soloists, fourteen ballet dancers, a sixty-member choir, a seventy-piece orchestra and three conductors. They performed pieces mostly inspired by William Shakespeare. The main gala programme was followed by a charity auction, the proceeds were offered to the Hungarian National Emergency Ambulance Service. The third charity event took place in this new form, whose aim was to let as many witness the first appearance of Plácido Domingo on the stage of the Opera House as possible. Therefore, unlike in previous years, the auditorium was not transformed into one huge ballroom. The most beautiful spaces in the Opera House gained new functions, the recently opened Feszty Bar became the dancefloor.
