Simándy was a uniquely gifted performer best known for playing the title role in Ferenc Erkel?s Bánk Bán. A permanent member of the Hungarian State Opera company, he grew up in a housing estate near the Kistarcsa iron works, which later became the infamous Kistarcsa detention centre and is now home to a parking lot and a doctor?s surgery. It is here the Kistarcsa Cultural Society wishes to erect the statue on the 90th anniversary of Simándy?s birth on September 18, said the society?s chairman Ferenc Kereszti.
Sculptor Frigyes Janzer, a winner of the Munkácsy Prize, one of Hungary?s highest honours for artists, has been commissioned to make the life-size bronze figure. The statue is expected to cost 15 million forints, 3.5 million of which has already been collected as donations. The rest is expected to be raised during a charity concert in the Szeged cathedral on September 22 as well as from the sale of 100 bottles of wine made from grapes grown in Simándy?s former vineyard in the village of Balatongyörök. The village, where Simándy had a vacation home, will make the great opera singer an honorary resident on July 30.
Source: Hungarian Press Agency (MTI)
