Oldal 27 [27]
ENDRE MARTON: STUDENTS OF VIENNA, 1949
to the ancient mime theatre and merely becrippled by the bourgeois era when
"the humorous genre of folk truthfulness began to lie under the command of
its new protector". ?"
The new regime tried to get a mountain out of the way in the field of theatre,
since at the time of the accusations against the genre, “nearly 80 percent of
the repertory was operettas, and the proportion of Soviet plays was dwarfed,
about 5 percent. According to statistics from the 1948-1949 season, [...] out
of 4,275 performances in the countryside were 3,208 operettas [...]. In the new
season, the ratio of prose to operetta had to be drastically changed, so that
it would be two-thirds to one-third.”** Market conditions were overridden in
order to make room for Soviet plays, which was supported by the sharpened
contrast between “the frivolity of our operettas” and “the healthy, upbeat
optimism and revolutionary romanticism of Soviet operettas”,*’ distilled
mainly from Captain Bought on Tobacco and some musical films." However,
the nationalized Operetta Theatre did not take a complete turn. It did not
open with a Soviet operetta, but rather with a musical play saturated with
revolutionary heat (Students of Vienna),"' followed by a classic updated from
a political point of view (Ihe Grand Duchess of Gerolstein). They prepared
the ground for Free Wind, the first Soviet play at the Operetta Theatre, set on
stage only towards the end of the season.
Set in the fall of 1848, Students of Vienna affirmed the refashioning of
the 1848-1849 events, carried out in 1948 by officials of the Hungarian
Communist Party, before the centenary of the former bourgeois revolution was
celebrated.” When Margit Gaspar’s refashioned idea of operetta condemned
Margit Gaspar: Az operett, Budapest, Népszava, 1949, 8. — This “myth of origin” was detailed
in some 500 pages in Margit Gáspárs book, A múzsák neveletlen gyermeke. A könnyűzenés
színpad kétezer éve (Budapest, Zeneműkiadó, 1963).
Korossy: Színházirányítás, 88.
Fejér: Kapunyitás, 6.
Cf. "We got acguainted with the first forms of Soviet operetta through musical films.
The artistic possibilities of operetta were first demonstrated by the operetta-like musical
films that came to us: The Ballad of Siberia, Volga-Volga, They Met in Moscow.” Margit
Gaspar: A kénnyii miifaj kérdései, Typed manuscript, 10. Location: Hungarian Theatre
Museum and Institute, Margit Gäspär’s heritage, No. 229/1994.
Cf. “Our revolutionary traditions mostly date back to 1848, and we wanted to pay homage to
these traditions with this play.” Semsei, in Az operett kerdeseiröl, 4.
Cf. “Ihe communist party was already preparing for autocracy and the political
choreography of the celebrations was aimed at the party’s placing itself in a historical
context and demonstrating that it is the only reliable custodian of revolutionary and
freedom-fighting traditions. [...] It attempted to turn the former bourgeois revolution
into a ‘people’s democratic’ revolution and to mask the struggle for freedom as a people’s
rebellion against foreign (i.e. Habsburg, topically German) oppression. The leaders of the
past events, mostly of noble birth (István Széchenyi, Lajos Batthyány, Bertalan Szemere,
Ferenc Deák, László Teleki) were tried to be replaced" and consigned to oblivion by
emphasizing the role of personalities of popular origin (Sándor Petőfi, Mihály Táncsics).
It was claimed that the revolutionary transformation, conducted by the communists,
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