Oldal 93 [93]
OCR
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 s O] e
