inkantačná kvalita

Opera as a Symbol of Status. The Hungarian Royal Opera 1884–1920
Opera, with its magical ability to worship, to invoke that which does not exist (yet), played a weighty role in the history of the Hungarian national movement. From the point of view of the history of opera practice in the contemporary Hungarian metropolis, the year 1812 is an important landmark – it is the year of the opening of the Royal Municipal German Theatre in Pest. In 1837 the Hungarian National Theatre started in the same city, which became the first permanent Hungarian theatrical scene (with the exception of the theatre in Transylvanian Klausenburg/Koloszvár/Cluj). The opera came to the fore soon afterwards, although it developed with the German “burden” for quite a long time. Not only orchestral players, but also the majority of singers had problems with the Hungarian language, which often became the subject of agitated discussions in the nationalist circles. In the middle of the 19th century the ensemble consolidated under the conductor Ferenc Erkel, who fulfilled the concepts of the national opera not only as a conductor, but as a composer, too (Hunyadi László, 1844; Bánk bán, 1861). Conflicts and arguments between the intendants and artistic directors (young Gustav Mahler being one of them) did not prevent the opera from becoming almost a form of mass art in Budapest at the end of the 19th century. This may be proven by the opening of the Folk Opera in 1911 with 3,400 seats. At the same time this artistic genre became attractive for both the intellectuals and modernist artists, Béla Bartók among them.