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FREEDOM FIGHT FOR LOVE, AN EXCELLENT FARCE AND SOME MUSIC BY LEHÄR
production of the Operetta Theatre, with another 94 performances in front
of more than 100,000 spectators. The decay of the production, which we can
assume by the audio recording, may have started then and culminated in the
next series in 1963, since neither of the directors took part in these revivals.**°
However, the revised version of Lehar’s operetta remained popular even later,
and not only at the Operetta Theatre, where it was staged three times by other
directors between 1963 and 2017.
The adaptation of Békeffy and Kellér has almost utterly replaced the
previous Hungarian version of The Count of Luxembourg. (This Ur-version
was only played in Szeged in 2005, directed by Péter Horvath.) The revised
and musically reduced The Count of Luxembourg has become Lehar’s most
popular operetta in Hungary, outstripping The Merry Widow, which sets
much higher demands on singers. René and Angéle have appeared in more
than fifty productions on Hungarian stages since 1952, directed by Läszlö
Vámos, István Iglódi, Ferenc Sík, István Szőke, József Bor, László Seregi and
Tamás Ascher among others. Aschers 1996 staging in Kaposvár stands out
from the reception history of the operetta, not only because of its high quality
of acting and mise-en-scéne, but also because of its many references to the
tradition created by the 1952 show. After all, Luxi and especially the roles of
Madame Fleury and Sir Basil have become “lieux de mémoire” (Pierre Nora)
for a style of playing operettas that linked the second half of the 20th century
to the first, with interrupted continuity, of course, and in which the spirits of
Hanna Honthy and Kamill Feleki have remained alive to this day.
430 After “a revolutionary meeting of the company” on 30 October, 1956, Gyorgy Székely
resigned as chief director of the Operetta Theatre and became employed in the Library of
the Theatre Association from 1* January, 1957. (Cf. Dr. Székely: Operettszínház — 1956,
30.) Margit Gáspár wanted András Mikó to be chief director earlier, but "the company did
not really like him and eventually Mikó left us offended and stayed at the Opera". (Venczel:
Virágkor, Part 2, 40.)
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