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MILITARIZING OPERETTA, OR THEATRE CRITICISM AS WAR PROPAGANDA
the version of the Operetta Theatre “had little to do with the original play”,'°?
it is fair to say that they created an effective operetta out of Free Wind, which
indeed called for stage.1°
However, critical discourse, cut adrift from the production, transformed it
into a simple message by giving a rather tendentious summary of the plot.""
By stressing that Free Wind shows that “an operetta can also have sense”,!”
the production was described as an advocate of serious truths and a promoter
of communist principles.’*° Reviewers militarized Free Wind significantly: its
last act was called the “beginning of open combat”, the cause of which is the
seamen’s realizing that “their ships, stranded for a long time and preparing
to travel now do not transport tropical fruits, but American weapons”.'®’
152 Venczel: Virägkor, Part 1, 17. - Cf. “We travelled to Czechoslovakia with a delegation in 1951
and decided to see a production of Free Wind there. Pista Horvai, who was also a member of
the delegation suddenly told me: ‘Margit, this is not the same play’. ‘Yes, it is’, I replied. ‘But
it’s about something else’. ‘You know we’ve revised it a bit, don’t you?’, I said. But everybody
agreed that our production in Budapest was much better.” Ibid., 18.
In connection with a production of Free Wind in Szolnok, in 1983, Judit Csdki noted that
“not only its roles, but also their relationships are adjusted to the classics: updating is all in
all consistent and comprehensive. In addition to class interests seen in classical operettas,
ideological-political conflicts also put lovers to the test. Among complications and intrigues
of the plot, the combat of the defenders of the revolution, the former partisans and the
counter-revolutionaries, the devotees of the old system come first.” (Judit Csäki: „Hajhö!
Zengj, te szabad szél!”, Szinhdz 17:2 (1984), 38.) It was the result of the thorough revision in
1950 that the play and the updating of classical traditions of operetta seemed nearly spotless
for the critic even more than thirty years later.
Cf. “[...] there is this Mediterranean town. No matter which one, the important thing is that
its bright life is severely eclipsed by the shadow of imperialism. Its seamen, who were born for
freedom and for work, and who fought a heroic partisan battle against the Germans during
the war for the freedom of their work, are sitting on the piers for months now in the stocks of
unemployment, because there is no boat from the port. Finally, there’s one, George Stan’s. It
should be transporting somewhere the tropical fruits of a man called Chesterfield. But what
are these tropical fruits like? What kind of fruits do Chesterfields produce? What kind of
fruits does imperialism produce? Bombs, grenades and machine guns. They are packed in fruit
crates. The addressee of the shipment is the tyrannical government of a small people in a war
of independence. And when the seamen recognize what it is at stake, they refuse to work, on
Marko’s advice, who is one of their mates hunted because of his fight against foreign oppressors.
[...] They won’t let the sea created to be free transport the means of oppression, the weapons of
imperialism against peoples created to be free too. They continue to sit on the pier, with their
heads huddled together, looking out at the endless waves and humming the forbidden song of
freedom, the march, which is increasingly reverberated all around the shores of the seas by
peoples of the world held captive by money, interest, profit and power: ‘Wind, wind, fly to us
from the east, / Wind, wind, bring us a new world...” Matrai-Betegh: Szabad szel, 5.
Ibid. “Truth is so stable and manifold that it can be danced, sung, even told in a funny way.
[...] Truth can also be lit with gentle lanterns, not only with bright headlights. Free Wind
proves the fact that a genre, already run dry, swells again healthily when it is fed by clear
springs.” Ibid.
Cf. “An operetta, which can tell serious things with its lighthearted methods. [...] An
operetta, which talks about love and cries for freedom yet.” Ibid.
17 L. J.: Szabad szél. Dunajevszkij-operett bemutatója a Fővárosi Operettszínházban, Szabad
Nép, Vol. 8, No. 109, 12" May, 1950, 6.
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