Signs of heroic struggle characterised this frugal year at the Miskolc International Opera Festival, but every effort was made to keep festival-goers from noticing any difference. Still, fewer performances were on the programme.
The organisers said it was not a year when people bought tickets for several performances for family and friends, spending as much as a hundred thousand forints. But the citizens of Miskolc have proved from the start of the festival that they are prepared to make sacrifices for the arts, and not just from the city's coffers, but from their own pocketbooks as well.
We knew from the beginning that the festival organisers were forced to seriously cut back on costs. The Latvian National Opera, which performed The Magic Flute magnificently on Saturday, could not bring their orchestra to Hungary because the cost would have been too great. Fortunately, the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra could fill the bill, and the problem was solved. The performance, which presented the opera in a new light, less so in terms of direction than in design, was a highlight of the weekend. Unlike the Kosice Ballet's jukebox dance parody of The Marriage of Figaro, in which men -- dressed as men and women - spanked each other's bottoms. Nobody can begrudge the dancers, but the director gave them little possibility to show their skills. Of course, opera-goers who left in the middle of the performances said it was because of the weather before making their way to the nearest gallery - as it was the Night of Museums on the evening of the performance, they had quite a choice of alternative activities.
Festival director Tamás Bátor and Miskolc mayor Sándor Káli spoke with the press in nearby Lilafüred on Sunday. Káli said it was a miracle that such a festival, with a programme built on harmony, had taken place for nine years and was continuing.
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| Moses and Aron |
"This festival is a mutual gesture: we accept with open hearts renewal and the artists, and they spread the news around the world that the old steel city is something different now," said Káli.
Bátor said the biggest contributor to this year's festival was the Vienna theme and the works of the New Vienna School. Especially remarkable were the two Alban Berg premieres of Lulu and Wozzeck, he added.
Also on the programme was a performance of Schönberg's Moses and Aaron, performed for the first time ever in Hungary. The Kossuth Prize-winning pianist and composer Zoltán Kocsis, who conducted for the production, said that although performances in Miskolc were not always packed, the festival had produced a layer of the public who could feel joy about these operas, in both their hearts and their heads.
Speaking of shaping layers of the public, next year, Tamás Bátor wants to add a three-day children's opera festival to the programme with the involvement of local art schools.
Forty operas and ballet performances at four venues along with some twenty accompanying programmes at points around the city: the festival organisers have something to be proud of, especially considering the French national press agency put the Bartók+... festival among its most highly recommended classical music events.
The Miskolc International opera Festival deserves kudos for the concept of bringing an opera festival to a city that earlier had a reputation only as an industrial centre. And it appears the programme is guaranteed to continue thanks to the firm stand of organisers on a not always popular concept that has, in the end, become popular and even drawn foreign visitors to the city. The organisers' work will only be complete, however, if an A-category hotel, suitable for Western visitors, is complete in the city centre as planned by 2011 .
At the festival's closing gala Ildikó Komlósi returned home to peform with Ingrid Kaiserfeld from Graz, Rita Rácz and Otokar Klein from the Hungarian State Opera, and Miklós Sebestyén of the operas in Munich and Leipzig. The Miskolc Symphony Orchestra accompanied, under the baton of Carlo Montanaro.
Author: Zsolt Koren
Photos: Krisztián Bócsi, János Vajda / Miskolc Opera Festival
