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ANDRÁS MIKÓ AND GYÖRGY SZÉKELY: THE COUNT OF LUXEMBOURG, 1952
DRAMATIC TEXT, DRAMATURGY
Posters were slightly exaggerating, when they advertised the revised Count of
Luxembourg as a grand operetta. Its refashioning into a farce, mostly enriched
with solos and duets, resulted in a serious cut of its musical texture, especially
the numbers that made music dramatic expression more complex.*“* The revised
version of Lehar’s 1909 operetta still revokes certain actors and it has become a
commonplace of theatre history that the new libretto of Békeffy and Kellér was
made for the Operetta Theatre, specifically for Hanna Honthy and Kamill Feleki.
Although the adaptors may have kept in mind these two stars, the new version
had premiered in Miskolc in April 1952, and had also been staged in Szeged
and Szolnok before the production of the Operetta Theatre opened at the end of
November.*“° According to Gyorgy Székely, one of the two directors in Budapest,
their production was a world premiere for a single reason: for Hanna Honthy’s
change of role-types. The new libretto, already tested in Miskolc, contained no
entrée for Fleury, but they created one for her, i.e. for Hanna Honthy,** whose
pork, for example, was only HUF 11.90 per kg in 1949, HUF 16 in 1951 and HUF 28.90 in
1952! But it was not only the village that was starving: wages paid in factories and plants did
not increase, and sometimes even decreased. People defended themselves as best as they
could: hiding crop and commodities and, especially in cities, illicit hoarding and black trade
flourished.” Hamori: Gondolatok a proletkult nevetéshez, 87.
344 Cf, “Thanks to [Békeffy and Kellér] we receive an excellent farce instead of an emotional and
romantic story." Balázs: Luxemburg grófja, 562.
345 According to Margit Gáspár, "dramaturgs of our theatre were working with the writers for
at least one year to adapt a classical operetta, e.g. The Count of Luxembourg”. (Gaspar: A
könnyű műfaj kérdései, 14.) She also claimed that, "I invented everything, the structure, the
ideas, the whole synopsis for The Count of Luxembourg and The Csérdäs Princess. Békeffy
and Keller wrote it divinely, but the frame was mine.” (Venczel: Virägkor, Part 1, 20.) We
can assume that The Count of Luxembourg was revised at the Operetta Theatre at the turn
of 1951 and 1952 for a production there, and it was transferred to Miskolc by László Szűcs
(Margit Gaspar’s husband, who was a dramaturg there at that time) to have a quasi-test run,
as well as in the other two towns.
346 Gyérgy Székely’s recollections may give rise to a misunderstanding, as he seems to be
implying that Fleury’s entrée was put into The Count of Luxembourg as a new song. Cf.
“We had to invent how the legendary artist would enter the stage. She played an older
character, but her entrance was as important as before. She had to come down the stairs.
There is no Honthy without the stairs and no Hungarian operetta either! I sat down with
Erné Innocent Vincze, dramaturg of the Operetta Theatre, and we started discussing what
the entrée should be about. It is set in Paris, Paris... Let’s say Fleury’s coming to Paris,
looking around and saying, well, this is Paris. What a woman is like here?! ‘At times she
errs like a chick, and it’s all very chic!’ Erné had a very close relationship with Franz Lehár,
so he easily arranged for Hanna to get a new entrée. And Hanna was great! She entered at
the top of the stairs, looked around and said, ‘So many people!’, then she started her entrée.
And the audience burst into applause! She immediately made contact with the spectators.
‘So many people’ did not refer to those waiting for her onstage, but to her dear audience.
[...] It turned out that she could succeed in this role-type too, and she was happy to play
it.. Tamás Gajdó: A falusi színpadoktól a Nagymező utcáig. Székely György portréja. Part
2, Parallel, No. 22. 2011, 10. (My italics — Ä.K.K.) - However, Lehär had been dead for
four years, so he could not write a new song. Fleury’s entrée was, in fact, taken from the
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