Béla's Flight; Prince Pikkó

József Chudy was a Hungarian composer and conductor living in Vienna. His 1793 work Prince Pikkó and Jutka Perzsi (1793) was the first Hungarian opera, although the music has been entirely lost. A little over two decades after the premiere of Prince Pikkó, along came József Ruzitska's work Béla's Flight, for which both music and libretto remain, which is why certain sources consider it to be the first Hungarian opera. We are dedicating a night to these two works of such eminent importance to Hungarian opera history: to replace the lost work, György Orbán has written along with new music for Prince Pikkó, a new libretto that, with the exception of the ending, faithfully follows the plot of the original work.

Béla's Flight
Opera in two acts, in Hungarian, with Hungarian surtitles

General cast:

Conductor: György Selmeczi
Béla IV, Hungarian king: Adorján Pataki
Queen Maria: Zsuzsa Barabás
Sarolta, their child: Dóra Ábrahám
Lajos, their child: Dávid Diarra
Kálmán, Hungarian nobleman: Loránd Váta
Lora, his stepdaughter: Tímea Fülöp
Csabi, his stepson: Zsombor Rétyi
Ferkó: Arnold Gergely
Knight of Saint John: Árpád Sándor
Mongol envoy: Róbert Laczkó Vass

Credits:

Composer: József Ruzitska
Libretto based on August von Kotzebue's drama of the same name: János Kótsi Patkó
Director: Ferenc Anger
Choreographer: N.N.
Set and costume designer: Gergely Zöldy Z

Premiere: May 19, 2017

Prince Pikkó
Opera fantasy in two acts, in Hungarian, with Hungarian surtitles
On the Opera's programme for the first time

General cast:

Conductor: György Selmeczi
Prince Pikkó: Adorján Pataki
Jutka Perzsi: Zsejke Székely
The khan: János Szilágyi
Sibuk: Róbert Laczkó Vass
Envoy: Sándor Balla

Credits:

Composer: György Orbán
The libretto was written based on Antal Szalkay's libretto of the same name: György Orbán
Director: Ferenc Anger
Set and costume designer: Gergely Zöldy Z
Choreographer: N.N.

Premiere: May 19, 2017