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FREEDOM FIGHT FOR LOVE, AN EXCELLENT FARCE AND SOME MUSIC BY LEHÄR
However, in spite of the intense analysis of The Count of Luxembourg,
Szekely and Mik6 did not change the staging so much that it could take shape
in subtle but essential modifications similar to Brecht’s ones, and did not
get beyond historical realism and the nuanced recreation of couleur locale.
The phenomena analyzed in the directors’ exposé were also highlighted by
the press, but critics wrote about them only in reference to the adaptation
and Kamill Feleki’s acting. The mise-en-scéne could display the ambiguities
Andras Mikó mentioned mostly by the contextualization of the text, which
was appreciated by critics, similarly to the rejection of some conventions
of staging operettas**' and the setting of romanticism in the shade of
amusement, raging from scintillating glee in the first act to extravagant
clowning in the last one.** The directors’ work was called “bold and dashing”,
even “brilliant”, because they kept reality in mind and let “the incredible
become believable”.**? For example, by means of treating scenes with music
and dance not separately from dialogues, but making their transitions as
smooth as possible. So from the point of view of communication they made
the vocals a logical continuation of speech.*** That is why they deployed
singing in dramatic (and of course stage) situations at all times.*# Reviews
also draw attention to the chorus and the crowd, whose vivacity had already
been noted in previous productions of the nationalized Operetta Theatre, but
the chorus was “really integral to the show now, for the first time in playing
operettas”, and extras played “active roles in the fate of the main characters”.**°
This was mainly Mik6’s achievement, who was just doing his first jobs at the
Opera House as a disciple of Kalman Nadasdy and Gusztav Olah, and had
already worked as co-director of The State Department Store at the Operetta
381 Cf. “The two directors [...] showed us that it was possible to take a stand in a classical
operetta too, if they get rid of the boring templates of operettas. [...] It was an old habit of
directors to leave rough and ready the first scenes following the overture. In the middle of
the second act, however, it was necessary to go the whole hog, to use all the spotlights and
the whole chorus, to let the audience remember it dazzled. That was the template. Miké and
Székely do it the other way around, not out of eccentricity, but because they feel the need to
take a stand. [...] The two directors are right to work out the swirling, boisterous joy of the
street more meticulously [at the beginning], with their ideas and heart seemingly supporting
the people’s celebration, more cheerfully and with greater love than the ceremonial world of
palaces.” Matrai-Betegh: Luxemburg grofja, 5.
Cf. “It has harmed the nature of the genre, which tends to emphasize the emotional part.”
Balázs: Luxemburg grófja, 562.
Ibid., 564.
384 Cf. Gombos: Luxemburg grófja, 4.
385 Cf. "The song "Gyerünk, tubicám, se kocsink, se lovunk’ [Come on, sweetie, we neither have
a carriage nor a horse] begins with sadness [Juliette and Brissard are comforting each other],
expressing the hopelessness of a young couple in financial trouble and destitute. The song
becomes happier and happier until it swells into life-affirming melodies of youth.” Ibid.
386 Matrai-Betegh: Luxemburg grofja, 5.
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