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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. 38: 8 38: a +86 +
