[1] On this occasion the stage and the auditorium of the Opera is transformed into a huge ballroom.
The ball is opened by more than a hundred debutante dancers after a show consisting of selected arias, followed by the Alles Walzer with people dancing until dawn.
Recent international guests include Montserrat Caballé, Ornella Muti, Yevgeny Nesterenko, Walter Berry, Heinz Zednik, Katia Ricciarelli, Patrizio Buanne, Catherine Deneuve, Katarina Witt, Gina Lollobrigida, Daryl Hannah, and Guy de Rothschild.
Representing a tradition rooted in Austrian-Hungarian culture of the 1880s, the revival 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.