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IMRE APÁTHY: ORPHEUS, 1952
the adaptors, Istvan Békeffy and Dezs6 Kellér, who followed Margit Gaspar’s
guidelines. However, in order to give raging topicality to the less direct
satirical aspects of Orphée aux Enfers and, in addition to mocking the enemies
of peace, to exalt the lofty ideals of fighting for it, Gyorgy Hamos “had to add
and remove a lot”, as a result of which “only the buttons remained from the
old coat”.*# Offenbach'’s opéra bouffon, set in three places (heaven, hell and
the earth), was refashioned to such an extent that it is pointless to compare
the two versions exhaustively. There are reminiscences of situations, motifs
and melodies from the old play, and there are some considerable overlaps,
but the 1952 Orpheus of the Operetta Theatre takes a completely different
path, with music completely adjusted to it, than the 1858 Parisian version.
The fact of rewriting was acknowledged and legitimized by the press: it was
considered necessary from the point of view of the myth and the political
purpose alike. On the one hand, it was stated that “all myths and legends must
change constantly, enrich themselves with new and new colors and develop
their contents together with the age”.”® On the other hand, the libretto was
thought “to have lost its bold message, [and] as it had moved further away from
France and its original era, its references, characters, twists and turns had
become greyer, less understandable and meaningless”.*” This instrumental
conception of myth and drama provided both the evocation of the hinted-at
end goal (communist salvation history) — i.e. “how modern man sees the hero
of the ancient legend progressing towards ever wider horizons”?! — and the
idea of a return to a supposed origin — i.e. to the initial progressive spirit of
the play”.’” It also allowed the construction of an ars poetica for the socialist
artist, “who fights with the forces of darkness”, since (as the daily newspaper
Magyar Nemzet wrote) “today’s authors hold the torch of a struggle for the
world of freedom instead of the world of limitations”.?73
Asan example of the playwright’s inventions, the “beautiful and promising”
beginning of Orpheus was highlighted,’” which steered the plot in opposite
direction as the opening of Orphée aux Enfers. In the libretto of Hector
Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy (after the introduction of the personification
268 Ibid.
269 Ibid.
d.sz.: Isteneknek álcázott gonosztevők. Az új Orfeusz próbája a Fővárosi Operettszínházban,
Világosság, Vol. 9, No. 33, 8 February, 1952, 6.
271 Antal: Orfeusz, 7.
272 d.sz.: Isteneknek álcázott, 6. — "Ihe spectator quickly comes to know who are behind these
Greek gods, defending their declining rule with tyrannical terror. Jupiter, who constantly
threatens the world with his lightning, [...] is extremely familiar to today’s spectators,
similarly to Jupiter’s underworld vassals, with whom he conspires to prevent the Orphean
song of peace that ‘tames even the beasts’.” Therefore, the play is suitable to “unmask the
enemies of humanity and peace in the mirror of caricature”. Ibid.
Antal: Orfeusz, 7.
Bacsó: Orfeusz, 5.
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