Hunyadi László

Opera in four acts, in three parts, in Hungarian, with Hungarian and English surtitles

János Hunyadi is responsible for the tolling of bells around the world; Mátyás Hunyadi is the hero of a string of folk tales; László Hunyadi inspired “only” an opera. An opera that is actually about his younger brother, the last great King of Hungary, or at least the events leading up to his rule. However, our current aim is not to raise László from the dead, who was the reason for and explanation to why Mátyás Hunyadi ended up on the throne. True that the original score, heard for the first time in almost ninety years, provides an excellent opportunity to play the part of the knight, executed while he was still young. The purpose of this production is to stage a piece authentic to the original and to use it to showcase the Opera’s artistic and technical possibilities.

The production of this work was created based on the critical edition series Ferenc Erkel Operas from the Department of Hungarian Music History of the Institute for Musicology of the Research Centre for the Humanities.