The Hungarian Opera has 1,600 searches a month and a domain that will not open at all

The English-named domain, hungarianopera.ro, answers — but with a TLS certificate issued for “matrixcw.hu”. There is no match with the requested name, so the browser refuses the connection and shows a security warning instead of a page.

We checked the certificate directly rather than only in a browser: the subject is CN=matrixcw.hu, and the only alternative name inside it is matrixcw.hu as well.

The site that does work is magyaropera.ro. It has an HU/RO switch and a current programme. But if you landed on the other domain — the one you would guess searching in English — nothing tells you so.

There is also archiv.magyaropera.ro. It loads without trouble and shows, on its front page, the closing concert of the 2018/2019 season.

So: three domains — one that will not open, one that is a seven-year-old archive, and one that is the real site. Which one you find first is a matter of luck.

From the programme published on magyaropera.ro: “Mária főhadnagy” by Huszka Jenő, an operetta, on 13 September. Verdi's “Nabucco” on 26 September.

The company also runs a mini-season in Miercurea Ciuc: “Nabucco” on 30 September, “Mária főhadnagy” on 1 and 2 October, and Dés László's musical “Valahol Európában” on 3 and 4 October.

At the Hungarian State Theatre, in the same building, under Tompa Gábor: “Édes Anna” directed by Szabó K. István, “Nem vagyok itt” conceived and directed by Kinga Mezei, “A király haldokol” and “Én vagyok a szél” directed by Tompa Gábor, and “Abigél” directed by Enikő Eszenyi.

The Hungarian Theatre's site, huntheater.ro, is entirely in Hungarian. There is no language switch. The monthly programme, the directors' names, the notes on each production — all there, in one language.

This is not a criticism. It is the Hungarian theatre of Cluj and its audience speaks Hungarian; that is as it should be. But 590 people a month search “teatrul maghiar cluj” in Romanian, and what they find is a page many of them cannot read.

We note it because it is exactly the kind of gap a guide can close without troubling anyone: we are not translating the productions, but we can say, in Romanian and English, what is playing, where and when. Both institutions' records in this guide now carry the September programme.