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The Hungarian State Opera House (Hungarian: Magyar Állami
Operaház) is a neo-Renaissance opera house located in central Pest
(a part of Budapest), on Andrássy út. Designed by Miklós Ybl, a
major figure of 19th century Hungarian architecture, the
construction lasted from 1875 to 1884 and was funded by the city of
Budapest and by Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. The
Hungarian Royal Opera House (as it was known then) opened to the
public on the September 27, 1884.
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It is a richly-decorated building and is considered one of the
architect's masterpieces. It was built in neo-Renaissance style,
with elements of baroque. Ornamentation includes paintings and
sculptures by leading figures of Hungarian art of the time including
Bertalan Székely, Mór Than and Károly Lotz. Although in size and
capacity it is not among the greatest, in beauty and the quality of
acoustics the Budapest Opera House is considered to be amongst the
first few opera houses in the world.
The auditorium holds 1261 seats. It is horseshoe shaped and -
according to measurements done in the 1970s by a group of
international engineers - has the 3rd best acoustics in Europe after
La Scala in Milan and the Palais Garnier in Paris. Although many
opera houses have been built since, the Budapest Opera House is
still among the best in terms of the acoustics. In front of the
building are statues of Ferenc Erkel, composer of the Hungarian
national anthem, and the first music director of the Opera House. He
was also founder of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra. The other
statue is of Franz Liszt, the best known Hungarian composer.
Each year the season lasts from September to the end of June and
besides opera performances the Opera House is home to the Hungarian
National Ballet.
Many important artists were guests here including Gustav Mahler the
composer who was director in Budapest from 1887 to 1891 and Otto
Klemperer who was music director for three years from 1947 to 1950.
In the 1970s the state of the building prompted the Hungarian State
to order a major renovation which eventually began in 1980 and
lasted till 1984. The reopening was held exactly 100 years after the
original opening, on the 27th of September 1984.
The Opera House in 1879.
In Hungary opera has been performed for over 300 years, just as in
France, Germany and Austria. At first operas were performed by
German and Italian theatrical troupes on the stages of aristocratic
manor houses. The earliest datum is about 1677: It relates of a
pastoral play which was performed in the mansion of court Forgách
Ádám in Pozsony. In the eighteenth century a number of aristocratic
theatres were founded, the most famous of which were the operas
established in the residences of princes Esterházy, first in Fertõd
and later in Kismarton. This latter became the most celebrated due
to the fact that Joseph Haydn had worked here for 30 years as
composer and conductor: Here was the world premiére of Haydn’s
several operas. Another important theatre was that of the bishop
baron Patasich Ádám in Nagyvárad, where the opera company was
directed by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf. In a later period, when
opera was attended by the middle class as well, between 1785 and
1789 the opera of count Erdõdy János in Pozsony achieved a great
reputation. At the end of the eighteenth century when the plays were
performed before beurgeois audience in German language, on the
repertory of the theatres were operas too. In this epoch, the first
opera was performed in 1784 (it was Salieri’s ’Die Schule der
Eifersüchtigen’) in the Rondella in Pest. Then, after 1787 the opera
performances became regular in the Castle Theatre of Buda. Much more
favourable were the conditions in the German Theatre of Pest which
opened in 1812. Its enormous auditorium of 3000 seats could be more
or less filled only during musical performances or when famous guest
actors from Vienna were playing.
The Opera House in
1900.
The professional drama
playing in Hungarian began in 1791. Both the company of Kolozsvár and
that of Pest produced musical pieces. (The first opera in Hungarian
language, Prince Pikkó and Jutka Perzsi’ by Chudy József was performed
by Kelemen László’s company of Pest in 1791). The strolling troupes
which were recruited from the two companies had on their repertory
such operas of Rossini, Méhul, Grétry, Weber, Cherubini, Boildieu and
Mozart which were composed for smaller ensembles and in which Mrs Déry
Széppataky Róza, the first Hungarian opera singer achieved a
nationwide reputation. In Kolozsvár the first Hungarian opera was
produced in 1822. It was ’Béla’s Escape’ by Ruzitska József. However
the opera playing in Hungarian became regular only in 1837, with the
opening of the Hungarian Theatre of Pest (from 1840 it was called
National Theatre). The first opera performance here was Rossini’s ’The
Barber of Sevilla’ in 1837. In the beginning the members of this
company were the great personalities of the opera’s heroic age. When
the company was completed with famous foreign quest actors the theatre
became a real rival to the German Theatre of Pest which existed until
1847. The young conductor of National Theatre,
Erkel Ferenc gradually improved the ensemble and arranged the
repertory which induced operas of Rossini, Bellini, Weber, Auber,
Donizetti, Mozart, Cherubini, Meyerbeer and above all, those of Verdi.
However the greatest merit of Erkel is that he brought into being the
Hungarian opera, without having any precedents behind. His
compositions, Hunyadi László and ’Ban Bank’ are to this day the most
popular pieces on the Opera House repertory. Erkel was mostly
attracted by the Italian music, and this is the reason why, after 1846
he took almost all of Verdi’s operas into his repertory. Nevertheless
he had an aversion to Wagner, that’s why the audience had to wait for
the ’Lohengrin’ to be produced until 1866.
The Opera House today
(photographer: Máté Varga)
A momentous stage in the
course of his company developing work was when Erkel in 1853
established the Philharmonia Society. The aim of this corporation
which was recruited from the theatre orchestra was to improve the
music playing of the orchestra and also to make the art of the
musicians develop. Not only the opera, but the ballet also began to
develop, in the National Theatre, although somewhat slowlier than the
former. In 1847 they engaged the Viennese Campilli Frigyes (who was of
Italian origin) as ballet-master. He then was the choreographer of
National Theatre and even of the new Opera House for 40 years. In the
years of absolutism which followed the suppression of the revolution
of independence in 1848-49, the opera performances became more
significant, despite the fact that the censorhip even from operas
erased every allusion to the independence or national identity. After
the Ausgleich of 1867 in the rapidly growing capital of Hungary, it
was more and more difficult for the National Theatre to satisfy the
general public’s need for theatre-going. Even after enlarging the
institution was not big enough to perform the dramas, the musical
plays about peasants or the operas.
In addition to it, in 1860 the operetta a new artistic form developed
and met with success. By that time the idea of separating drama from
opera was taking shape. In 1872 a committee was established to take
the preliminary steps in separation, then they conducted a competition
for planning which was won by Ybl Miklós. The building of the Opera
House was started in 1875 and lasted for 9 years. The curtain after
the last opera performance in the National Theatre fell in June 1884.
After that the opera and ballet company removed to a palace on Sugár
street and they began to make arrangements for the opening night. The
ceremonial opening of the Opera House was held on 27th September 1884.
Since Erkel Ferenc hadn’t managed to complete his opera entitled
’István the King’ by that time, they produced the first act of the
’Ban Bank’, the overture of the ’Hunyadi László’ and the first act of
the ’Lohengrin’, the orchestra was conducted by Erkel Ferenc. In the
beginning they continued to play their repertory of the National
Theatre, but with new scenery, since use of the old scenery was not
possible and because of the dimension and structure of the stage. This
repertory was extremely varied: It included 37 operas and 7 ballets.
Goldmark’s ’Queen of Sheba’ was the greatest success, just as before.
The first world premiére was that of ’István the King’ in 1885, which
was Erkel’s last opera. Soon the first troubles in running the House
manifested themselves.
The former opera ensemble of the National Theatre neither in quality
of playing nor in number could comply with the requirements of
everyday performing, so the management was forced to engage regular
quest actors. The numbers of both the orchestra and the the chorus had
to be increased. Besides the crisis of art soon a bankruptcy too was
overhanging the Opera House. The audience of Pest not a portion of
expences of running the House could cover; it proved fairly costly,
altough both the government and the royal court made a considerable
contribution to it. In addition to that, all the aristocratic
intendants who succeded after Podmaniczky Frigyes were non-competent
and even prodigal. To solve the problem they decided to engage a new
art director who is ambitious and gifted above par. They found Gustav
Mahler for this position. He then directed the Opera House from 1888
to 1891.
The period of his direction was the first „golden age” of the Opera
House. His achievements both in creating a new company and making up
an up-to-date repertory proved long-lasting. It was under his
direction that they produced the first two pieces of Wagner ’s ’Ring
Tetralogy’ in Budapest then scarcely a few weaks after this world
premiére the ’Rustic Chivalry’ of Mascagni was performed too. This
latter, after having a great succes in Budapest, began to sweep the
world. Several years later Nikisch Arthur took over the duties of
Gustav Mahler, which gave the company a new stimulus in their artistic
work. It was then that they produced Puccini’s composition ’Manon
Lescaut’; thus creating a basis for the future permanent cooperation
of Puccini and the Budapest Opera House. Puccini in person taught the
company of Pest play the parts of ’Madama Butterfly’ and those of ’La
fanciulla del West’.
After his departure from 1900 the company was guided by Kerner István.
In 1912, count Bánffy Miklós, a versatile person who was known not
only as an excellent writer and painter but also as designing engineer
took over the direction of the Opera House. He signed on the brilliant
opera director Hevesi Sándor and the superb Italian conductor Egisto
Tango, whereby a new golden age commensed in the history of the House.
After 1910 the career of the prominent new opera singers, Sándor
Erzsi, Medek Anna, Haselbeck Olga, Basilides Mária, Némethy Ella,
Környei Béla, Pataky Kálmán and Székelyhidy Ferenc started. During the
First World War the development of the theatre was very much hindered.
The Opera House even closed down for a year. Newertheless, during the
years of the war two of Bartók Béla’s dramas, ’The Wooden Prince’
(1917) and ’Duke Bluebeard’s Castle’ (1918) were produced in the Opera
House. A third drama of Bartók, ’The Miraculous Mandarin’ was first
put on the stage in Budapest only decades later, in 1945.
The period between the two world wars was both economically and
politically a very hard one, nevertheless an inprecedented flowering
of art began in the Opera House. The House then was directed by two
outstanding personalities coming after each other, the one was the
composer Radnai Miklós (from 1925 to 1935) and the other Márkus László
a writer, stage director and designing engineer (from 1935 to 1944).
By engagement the conductors Sergio Failoni and Ferencsik János, the
stage director and designer Oláh Gusztáv, stage director Nádasdy
Kálmán, and Fülöp Zoltán, the stage designer, the costume designer
Márk Tivadar, and the ballet masters Jan Cieplinski and Nádasi Ferenc,
they had artists whose influence on artistic activity of the Opera
House lasted for several decades. Besides the first-rate opera singers
such as Báthy Anna, Rigó Magda, Tutsek Piroska, Rösler Endre, Losonczy
György, Jámbor László, Maleczky Oszkár, and Székely Mihály, the arias
of the extremely varied repertory were brilliantly performed by a
number of renowned guest actors, too. The very cream of contemporary
opera performance, such singers as Maria Jeritza, Ebe Stignani,
Beniamio Gigli, Jan Kiepura, Alexander Kipnis, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi,
Helge Roswaenge and Richard Tauber were regularly playing in Budapest,
while the company of the Opera House with several succesful guest
performances (they went to Nürnberg, Florence and Rome) were
continually enhanting the reputation of opera culture. During the last
phase of the Second World War the German occupation of the Hungarian
capital, then the siege of Budapest paralyzed the activity of the
theatre.
The building of the Opera House fortunately sustained only minor
damages during the battles, so they could reopen a comparatively short
time after in March 1945. After the war there were considerable
changes in the life of the theatre. In 1946 Tóth Aladár, the
outstanding musical critic took up the post of the director, who,
after long-drawn pursuit in 1947 engaged Otto Klemperer as conductor.
The three years of the Klemperer period were characterized by fabulous
performances of Mozart and Wagner operas in which a new generation
grandiose singers achieved success: Gyurkovics Mária, Takács Paula,
Mátyás Mária, Szecsõdy Irén, Delly Rózsi, Palánkay Klára, Joviczky
József, Simándy József, Radnai György, Melis György and Faragó András.
To satisfy the significally increased need of public for opera, in the
end of the 1940s, in 1951 they added to the Opera House the Town
Theatre which had 2400 seats. From 1953 the Town Theatre was called
Erkel Theatre and functioned as additional scene of the Opera House
for playing. The ballet company began considerably to develop, too.
From the fifties of the last century famous Soviet ballet masters and
choreographers were engaged by the Opera House, they then made the
company acquainted with the traditions of classical Russian ballet
dancing. The young talented dancers of that period - Lakatos
Gabriella, Csinády Dóra, Kun Zsuzsa, Fülöp Viktor, Róna Viktor and
Havas Ferenc captivated the audience in splendid choreographies of
Harangozó Gyula, which were great success. An outstanding personality
of Hungarian modern ballet is the choreographer Seregi László.
In 1959 Nádasdy Kálmán entered on the duties of director. To the
repertory were added several compositions of the twentieth century,
such as ’Wozzeck’ and ’Lulu’ by Berg, Albert Herring and the
’Midsummer Night Dream’ by Britten, ’Katjerina Izmajlova’ of
Sostakovich, and also some preclassical operas, they were: ’The
Coronation of Poppea’ and ’The Return of Ulysses to His Country’ by
Monteverdi, ’Rodelinda’ of Handel, and ’Orpheus’ by Gluck. At the
beginning of the sixties several important Hungarian operas had their
world premiére. Among them the most excellent were: the ’Bodas de
Sangre’ of Szokolay Sándor and ’C’est la Guerre’ of Petorvics Emil.
The opera playing in Budapest by and by became again part of the
international opera.
After an interval of one and a half decade, in the sixties again
several renowned foreign singers appeared before the audience of
Budapest. Among them were Giuseppe Taddei, Giuseppe di Stefano Theo
Adam, Giulietta Simionato, Montserrat Caballé, Renata Scotto, Boris
Christoff, Placido Domingo, Piero Cappuccilli, Luciano Pavarotti and
Giacomo Aragall. The orchestra of the Opera House was taught many
performances such world-famous conductors as Lamberto Gardelli,
Giuseppe Patané and Jurij Simonov. Under direction of Lukács Miklós
who succeded after Nádasdy Kálmán more frequent were the guest
performances. More operas were added to the repertory and there were
further important world premiéres of such operas, as ’Hamlet’, and
’Samson’ by Szokolay, the ’Crime and Punishment’ and ’Lysistrate’ by
Petrovics. ’Together and Alone’ by Mihály András. The company was
complemented by new young talented members. It was then that Kincses
Veronika, Tokody Ilona, Sass Sylvia, Gulyás Dénes, Kelen Péter, Miller
Lajos, Gáti István, Kováts Kolos and Polgár László became members of
the theatre.
They are steady members of the company up to the present. When Lukács
Miklós retired and Mihály András took over his duties, he found a
critical situation. The renovation of the Opera House had been
postponed several times and for many years, so in spring of 1980 it
had to be started. During the four years of reconstruction the company
could only play in the Erkel Theatre. The performances were
considerably reduced, and the repertory became scantier. This
extremely hard period ended only when the renewed within and without
equipped with most modern technology Opera House reopened on 24th
September 1984., on the centenary of its first opening. |
HIRDETÉS
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Data |
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 Designer:
Ybl Miklós
Year
of construction: 1884
Style:
neo-Reanissance
Funktion:
opera
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Jelenleg
nincs ajánlható link!
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