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ANDRÁS MIKÓ AND GYÖRGY SZÉKELY: THE COUNT OF LUXEMBOURG, 1952
attractive, more masculine and more humorous”, Arpad Baksay’s voice was
said to be more appropriate for the title hero, in spite of his “inexperience
resulting in stereotypes” and “the love line of the plot becoming secondary”.*””
Marika Németh was admired for “the warmth of her voice”, but her charm did
not receive positive evaluation: “she was only charming all the time, without
becoming sharp-tongued, piquant, French actress-like and interesting a
bit"."8 Her alternate, Teréz Komlósi, on the other hand, was missing charm,
and she played a “tougher, sharper character with a stiff manner, [...] even
though Angéle has no heroic features in her mellow nature. It was a mistake
to give this role to this actress.”*'?
Among the members of the second couple, Róbert Rátonyis acting
provoked a positive reaction for disclosing the emotional depths beneath
Brissard’s joy, vigor and youthful serenity," so it became generally accepted
that he was “a worthy successor to the great old buffos”.*”! Magda Gyenes was
considered to get closer to Juliettes role than Anna Zentay, but her acting
was deemed problematic.?? Zentay, on the other hand, was criticized for
the exaggeration of her movement,*? though her performance was full of
“great ideas and teasing, her voice full of musical jokes”.’* The multifaceted,
multilayered nature of acting, highly esteemed in case of Honthy and Feleki,
was not mentioned in case of these two couples at all, but the audio recording
of the production made in the 1960s — the accents full of mannerism, the
diction far from any kind of realism — show that all actors (including the two
stars) hunted for instant laughter with banal clarity. The reason for this may
be the much too long run of the production as well as its gradual decay, far
from its original directors.
STAGE DESIGN AND SOUND
When the mise-en-scéne had taken a step forward, the scenography had
taken two steps backwards to the much-doomed tradition of playing
operettas. Surprisingly, the visual aspect of the production could hardly be
reconstructed from the lengthy reviews. The most information is provided by
the monthly called Szinhdz és Filmmiivészet, which mentions that “the sets
are strikingly beautiful, especially in the first scene, with the Notre Dame in
417
Mátrai-Betegh: Luxemburg grófja, 5.
“8 Tbid.
“9 Tbid.
120 Gombos: Luxemburg grófja, 4.
Balázs: Luxemburg grófja, 563.
122 Cf. Gombos: Luxemburg grófja, 4; Mátrai-Betegh: Luxemburg grófja, 5.
123 Cf. Balázs: Luxemburg grófja, 564.
124 Mátrai-Betegh: Luxemburg grófja, 5.
421
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