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| Róbert Alföldi |
"It was a great evening and I am especially glad that the writer Tobias Picker said I gave new life to his opera," Alföldi, who also the director of Hungary's National Theatre, said after the show.
Emmeline was produced as part of the International Opera Competition and Festival with Mezzo Television and is the second opera that Alföldi has directed in New York. Last year's production of an opera based in Arthur Miller's The Crucible was a hit among critics and audiences alike.
"The performance went very well, almost without mistakes and it was a great success with a standing ovation," Alföldi said of the show at the Dicapo, an opera house near Central Park.
He said it was a difficult piece in terms of music, acting, singing and stage technique, requiring well-coordinated efforts by as many as 60 people. The high expectations after last year's success were also noticeable, he added. We had three and a half weeks to complete the production and in the end everybody was prepared, Alföldi said. "It was very tough work."
Alföldi said the opera presented a powerful and dramatic story set in an oedipal situation. The writer adapted a truly American story. "It is a very painful opera that one can truly identify with and I hope I managed to make real theatre from it," Alföldi said.
Emmeline will be presented at the Dicapo Theatre five times. It will be shown at the Szeged National Theatre in Hungary on November 15 and 16 as one of the five competing productions of the Mezzo Festival.
Alföldi said he had grown to like Emmeline very much, already when he first heard the music a year ago. He though it was "very powerful and dramatic music."
The Hungarian tenor Zoltán Nyári plays the role of Matthew in the opera.
Alföldi said he would not stay for the remaining performances in New York because he had to start working at the National Theatre already on Monday. He added that even though he was proud to have the chance to work in New York and had enjoyed it very much, he was feeling homesick and it was time to go home. He added that he would be glad to return to New York if he was invited again.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: MTI
